By Brandon HENSLEY
Johnny Brookbank, first alternate member of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, has been given a general censure and will not be on council through June 30.
During the April 15 virtual Crescenta Valley Town Council meeting, member Aram Ordubegian answered the question several people had posed in the public comments section of the night’s agenda regarding Brookbank’s status.
“Ultimately, the entire council decided against removal and a two-month censure was voted upon up to and including June 30,” Ordubegian said.
Council released a statement on April 14 specifying the motion passed, which includes, “An immediate suspension and censure in accordance to the bylaws until June 30th. In the event of a further violation of the issues raised in the Investigative Committee’s report, immediate removal will be effectuated and decided by the Executive Committee.”
Complaints against Brookbank include a social media post about council posting its general meetings online for the public to see (some members have objected due to concern over privacy), “having detailed interactions with business” without the consent of council, and showing bias for the Eagle Canyon Trail project at Two Strike Park. The report states that, according to council bylaws and policy, “members shall refrain from expressing bias on issues before the council.”
Brookbank, who attended the meeting as a private citizen and did not speak, has been under scrutiny this spring for recent actions on social media and around town that council was made aware of. After an investigation, this week council released a 19-page report on its website detailing its findings.
Council concluded that after an investigation by Chris Kilpatrick, Donna Libra and Jeffrey Rodriguez, which included collecting emails and social media posts, and interviews from witnesses and Brookbank himself, there were “significant violations of the bylaws.”
Brookbank’s statement from his interviews “appears to mean that [he] feels he can disrupt and violate the rules all he wants, as long as he has determined it to be justified,” the report said.
Ultimately Brookbank, who was elected last November, was found to be in violation of all four instances brought up in the report: breach of confidentiality; conducting council business; misrepresenting council positions; showing bias on issues before council.
The report said his violations could have meant the end of his tenure with council, if not for the vote to censure him.
To read the report, visit https://tinyurl.com/y2w2r3tn.
In other business, David Gould, engineer for CV Water District, informed council of the district’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), which aims to protect life and property, increase public awareness of the risk of loss of water and/or sewer service and local water supply sources.
The plan is needed in order to obtain federal grant funding that Gould said was approved in April 2020 for $166,653.
“A lot of our assets are tied back to wildfires. In other words, this is going to have the most effect on our system if we had a wildfire similar to what happened in 2009,” Gould said, referring to the Station Fire in Angeles National Forest.
The LHMP calls for four new portable emergency electrical generators to move water to higher elevations, and seismic sensors and valve actuators to close valves and save water.
There are still several steps for the plan to be completed. For more information, visit cvwd.com.
Before Gould spoke, Glendale Unified School District Superintendent Vivian Ekchian said she was happy that, over the past month, students in elementary school had been returned to campus. Transitional kindergarten through second grade was brought back on March 29, and third grade through sixth grade came back April 5.
Ekchian said middle school and high school students can return starting April 26.
The next council meeting is scheduled for May 20 at 7 p.m. on Zoom. For more details, visit thecvcouncil.com.