Fired ag commissioner sues to get job back

                                                                                            PD FILE
Cathy Neville, former Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner, has filed a lawsuit seeking to get her job back.

Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday publicly acknowledged firing Agricultural Commissioner Cathy Neville, two weeks after they authorized the action in a closed-door meeting.

Open government advocates have raised concerns that county officials have been flouting the state's open meeting laws, commonly known as the Brown Act, by not disclosing actions they have taken in closed session.

In the case of Neville's dismissal, County Counsel Bruce Goldstein on Tuesday explained the delay making that news public by citing state laws that he contended defer such announcements until the “exhaustion of administrative remedies” has taken place.

He said that process ended Tuesday, allowing him to announce Neville's firing during the board's meeting as the former agricultural commissioner sat in the audience taking notes.

In a lawsuit Neville filed against the county on Monday, she claims that the process Goldstein referenced on Tuesday was “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to state law.”

“It would be futile for (the) petitioner to participate in that process by pursuing administrative remedies when she challenges the nature of the process itself,” states the lawsuit, which was filed on Neville's behalf by San Francisco employment law attorney Stephen Murphy.

Neville is seeking reinstatement, back pay and benefits for every day she is out of work and attorney's fees.

Neville was fired March 22 for reasons neither she or county officials will divulge.

The 53-year-old agricultural official had been on paid leave since Jan. 12 from a job that paid her $153,413 in base salary plus $80,101.58 annually in county-paid benefits.

Neville had been under scrutiny since July, when she fired Amy Cooper, the former director of the county's Animal Care and Control Department.

Supervisors initially threw their support behind Neville, saying they did not want to micro-manage a department head or second-guess decisions that she made.

In her lawsuit, Neville claims that supervisors “voted unanimously to support the termination” of Cooper.

Neville said Tuesday that the vote took place at a July 13 board meeting, which would have been the day after Neville notified Cooper that she was being dismissed.

County records show that supervisors met in closed session that day on an item pertaining to Neville, but that no action was taken during that meeting. Supervisor Valerie Brown, then the chairwoman of the board, declined to comment Tuesday.

Neville's suit alleges that supervisors later “buckled to the media onslaught” and voted to move animal care to the Department of Health Services, which in effect reduced Neville's oversight authority and budget by about half.

On Tuesday, Goldstein provided a more detailed timeline of when supervisors authorized certain actions with regard to Neville. Until then, neither Goldstein nor the board had publicly acknowledged taking any action.

Goldstein said supervisors meeting in closed session March 1 reviewed the findings of a county-led investigation into the agricultural commissioner's office and unanimously authorized Supervisor Efren Carrillo, the board's current chairman, to give Neville notice that the county intended to fire her.

Neville's attorney responded March 18 by stating the county had no authority to seek that outcome, and that only the state can remove agricultural commissioners from office following a hearing.

Goldstein said interim Human Resources Director Julee Murphy still felt that termination was warranted. Carrillo agreed, and signed the order March 22.

Although Goldstein stated Tuesday that a dismissal cannot be announced publicly until administrative remedies are exhausted, the signed termination order was filed with the clerk of the board and provided to the media March 23.

Goldstein did not return a message left later in the day Tuesday seeking comment.

County Administrator Veronica Ferguson declined comment, citing the pending litigation.