Vallejo mayor slams decision to cancel council meetings
(File photo by Matthew Keys for Solano NewsNet)
A decision by Vallejo officials to cancel two scheduled city council meetings has drawn strong criticism from the city's mayor.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell said he disagrees with the decision and wanted the number of meetings held each month expanded in the future.
"I would like to make it perfectly clear that I do not agree with this policy," McConnell wrote on Facebook. "Nor do I necessarily agree with the policy of having only two council meetings each month — policies which were both started under a previous mayor."
City officials had originally scheduled its council meetings to take place on August 9 and August 23. McConnell apparently learned of the decision to postpone both meetings from a small write-up that appeared in the Monday edition of the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper.
It was not clear why city officials canceled the meetings. A spokesperson for the city manager's office has not yet returned a request for comment.
It can be difficult for city officials to progress on public business and other initiatives when a city council meeting is postponed or canceled. The Ralph M. Brown Act, which was codified into law in the 1950s, generally prohibits city officials from discussing public business unless it is done so at an open meeting.