After citizens complained of secretive actions taken by the city council, nothing happened. But now that a District Attorney has announced that a controversial March 30 closed session of the St. Helena City Council violated the Brown Act, council members have decided to act.

They have rescinded the actions taken at the closed session. While they have not made it perfectly clear what actions have been undone, one of the actions taken during that closed session was the firing of former city manager Mary Neilan.

The rescinded actions will not affect Neilan’s actions, because her separation agreement was approved a week later at an April 6 council meeting.

From the St. Helena Star:

In response to a legal threat, the St. Helena City Council has rescinded the actions it took during a controversial March 30 closed session that ended with the firing of former City Manager Mary Neilan.

However, the council did so without making clear exactly what they were rescinding.

Two weeks ago, councilmembers agreed to add an item to Tuesday’s agenda rescinding their March 30 actions to counter accusations by an open government watchdog group, Californians Aware, that the council had violated the state’s open meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act.

Read the full article here.