The
lawyer for the Montecito Sanitary District has told board members they are
violating the state Brown Act and “half a dozen conflict of interest rules” by
engaging in group emails with Bob Hazard, a columnist for the Montecito Journal and a major campaign
contributor to elected officials serving on both the water and Sanitary District
boards.
“You
need to be very careful,” said Janet McGinnis, the Sanitary District legal
counsel, at a March 14 meeting of the board. “I’m trying to protect you from
missteps.”
Hazard,
an associate editor of the Journal,
resident and past president of the Birnam Wood Golf Club on East Valley Road,
and persistent gadfly at public board meetings, contributed $5,000 to the
winning slate of two Montecito Water Board candidates in 2016 and another
$5,000 to the winning slate of three candidates for the Water Board and two for
the Sanitary Board in 2018 — part of a $200,000 treasure chest bankrolling the
campaigns — and he wielded his Journalcolumns to rally the community behind them.