The McFarland City Council will meet Thursday night April 23 to discuss an appeals case that would place a for-profit detention center in the small farming town. But community advocates are calling on the council to postpone the remote meeting.
The detention center would be run by a company called the GEO group. At the last city council meeting which was done remotely, a new council member, Eric Rodriquez, was appointed. Rodriguez is a former GEO employee.
That’s why Jordan Wells, a lawyer with the ACLU says the council should first resolve the violations that occurred at that meeting.
“What they did at a meeting on April 9th, that didn’t comply with the essential protections on public's access to city council meetings that are contained in the Brown Act,” Wells said.
The Brown Act requires at least one publicly accessible location for members of the community to observe and offer public comment at the meeting. Alex Gonzalez with the local community organization, Faith in the Valley, says that didn’t happen.
“In order to do a public comment you have to submit an email and a lot of our community doesn’t have access to the internet or doesn’t necessarily know how to send an email,” said Gonzalez.
The April 9th meeting also lacked English translation for community members. That’s why advocates want tonight’s meeting postponed but City Councilmember Rafael Melendez says it will still take place.
