LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following a closed session Tuesday evening, the Lakeport City Council emerged with news of a unanimous decision to terminate the employment of the longtime city attorney.
Mayor Tom Engstrom announced the decision regarding City Attorney Steve Brookes shortly after 7:30 p.m., following a roughly hour-long closed session.
When asked for a cause for the termination after the council adjourned, City Manager Margaret Silveira said no explanation would be given due to it being a personnel matter.
Brookes was present for the Tuesday night council meeting, sitting in the audience rather than at his usual spot beside Silveira.
He went into the closed session with the council but emerged and left City Hall about halfway through.
“I really can't comment,” Brookes said when reached by phone Tuesday evening.
The issues with his employment appeared to have arisen during recent weeks.
Last Tuesday the city council held a special afternoon meeting, the notice for which was not sent to the media – which city staff said was an oversight – but was posted on the city’s Web site and on the door of City Hall.
The agenda, citing Government Code Section 54957 (b), said the council was to discuss a matter involving “public employee discipline/dismissal/release,” the same language used on the council’s Tuesday night regular meeting agenda.
The minutes furnished for that special June 25 meeting said only that there was no report when the council emerged after a three and a half hour discussion.
Brookes, 56, a longtime Kelseyville resident, holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and received his law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 1982.
He has served as the Lakeport city attorney for 30 years. His half-time work arrangement with the city has allowed him to maintain a private law practice based in downtown Lakeport.
Brookes – who has maintained rapport with numerous councils and city staff over the years – encountered difficult times following his arrest in February 2011 for driving under the influence of alcohol and hit and run with property damage.
He had crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a pickup truck in Kelseyville before leaving the scene. Two of the pickup’s occupants suffered minor injuries.
In July 2011 Brookes pleaded no contest to misdemeanor DUI with all other charges dismissed in a case handled by visiting retired Judge J. Michael Byrne, as local judges had recused themselves, according to court records.
Brookes was ordered to pay court costs and fines, and to attend a substance abuse education program, and additionally received three years' probation, according to the judgment.
The following year, in January 2012, he was given a public reproval by the State Bar in response to the case. The State Bar said a reproval is used when an attorney is found culpable of professional misconduct, but no period of suspension is imposed.
In the State Bar case, it was alleged that Brookes was guilty of dishonesty for telling a California Highway Patrol officer after the crash that there was no damage to the pickup, that he and the pickup's female driver knew each other and he promised he would take care of the matter later because he had to get home.
The other State Bar allegation against Brookes was “harm” due to two of the pickup's occupants suffering minor injuries in the crash.
However, because Brookes had no previous disciplinary record and showed remorse, the case was settled with the public reproval, with Brookes required to provide the State Bar with quarterly reports and to attend eight meetings per month of an abstinence-based support group.
Brookes was able to move past the case and continued on with his job with the city, and continued to be an important member of the administrative management team.
At its meeting last Dec. 4, the Lakeport City Council approved an updated contract for Brookes that was good through the end of this year, with an annual salary of $50,796 and a retirement package of 2.5 percent at age 55 under CalPERS.
The contract's terms state that if Brookes is terminated prior to Dec. 31, he is to be paid six months' compensation and accrued paid leave.
The contract also notes that if Brookes is terminated as the result of any of a number of acts – among them, malfeasance, dishonesty, moral turpitude, willful or corrupt misconduct, willfully causing damage to public property or wasting public supplies, acts or misconduct that bring scandal or disrepute to the city, insubordination or absence without leave – he won't receive the severance agreement.
Neither Brookes nor city officials would offer any details about whether he will receive severance as part of the termination.
Update: The story originally reported that the June 25 special meeting agenda was not posted on the city Web site. Lake County News searched the site but could not locate it, although city staff said Wednesday that it was posted there. The city acknowledged that the agenda was not sent to the media because of an oversight. The story has been updated to reflect that new information.
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