MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) – On August 31, 2020, a director of the North Yuba Water District (NYWD) filed a motion with the Yuba County Superior Court seeking $65,560.00 in attorney fees.

“Since I was elected as of 2018, I have been asking for records about the Forbestown Ditch Pipeline Project,” said Dr. Gretchen Flohr, NYWD Director, Division 4. “From the beginning, the NYWD administration, backed up by the other board members, have stonewalled me and the public from finding out what is going on. I sued to get those records. I won, and the California Public Records Act requires NYWD to pay my attorney fees that were necessary to prove that NYWD violated the law,” Flohr said.

NYWD is planning on building a pipeline in the Forbestown Ditch – the Gold Rush-era stream bed – that provides water to farmers and homes. But NYWD has kept information about the project secret, preventing the public from being part of the planning process.

“Access to water in Yuba County means life and death, wealth or ruin for the people who elected me,” Flohr said. “The voters suspect that the Board majority has given total decision-making power to Jeff Maupin, the General Manager, and the people are worried that Mr. Maupin is making mistakes that will result in the loss of future water access, Flohr said.

“Denying the public access to records relating to the conduct of the public’s business is against the law,” Flohr continued. “So my only choice was to ask a judge to order NYWD to give me access to the records and information the public needs to find out what is going on and to exercise their constitutional rights to participate in the pipeline planning process.”

On March 31, 2019, Flohr filed a lawsuit enforcing her and the public’s right to access the records NYWD was withholding. NYWD fought back and filed a cross-complaint against Flohr accusing her of being “frivolous” and motivated by personal animosity.

Yuba County Superior Court Judge Stephen Berrier disagreed. On July 30, 2020, Judge Berrier ordered the District to give Flohr all of the records she sued to get. As for the NYWD’s cross-complaint that accused Flohr of being motivated by personal animosity, Judge Berrier stated that judgment on NYWD’s cross-complaint was in Flohr’s favor, and that NYWD “shall take nothing.”

The California Constitution and the California Public Records Act make it clear that every person has the right to participate in the making of any public agency decision, especially the ones that result in spending taxpayer dollars. “But you can’t participate in the governmental decision-making process effectively if you don’t know what an agency is actually doing,” said Paul Nicholas Boylan, an attorney based in Davis who specializes in free speech and records access law. “That’s why the public has the right to access records and information. It is a right that is fundamental and necessary to democracy,” Boylan said.

To make sure that ordinary people can be involved in governmental decision-making, the Public Records Act encourages people to petition to enforce their records access rights by requiring a losing agency to pay the petitioner’s legal cost and attorney fees of the petitioner, which encourages agencies to provide access to records instead of keeping them secret.

“The rules on government transparency aren’t rocket science,” Boylan said. “Every agency knows that they have a duty to provide the public with access records. When an agency that violates the Public Records Act is ordered to pay the petitioner’s attorney fees, it happened because that agency tried to conduct the public’s business in secret, and that is just plain against the law,” Boylan concluded.

NYWD had until August 24^th to appeal Judge Berrier’s judgment.  That day came and went without any appeal being filed. As a consequence, Judge Berrier’s judgment became final and enforceable.

“Fighting against the public’s right to know resulted in a huge waste of time and money,” Flohr said. “I cringe when I think of how much public tax money NYWD spent trying to defend the decision to keep the public in the dark about the pipeline project. But the public’s right to know what is going on is an important right worth enforcing. I hope that the Board majority and Mr. Maupin learn from this huge mistake and start conducting the public’s business more transparently. All they have to do is what the law says they are supposed to do, and this won’t happen again,” Flohr said.

Dr. Flohr’s motion also asks for reimbursement for the cost of preparing and filing her motion, as well as a fee enhancer awarded for successfully prosecuting a difficult case.

Dr. Flohr’s motion is scheduled to be heard on September 28, 2020, at 10:00 AM in Department 4 of the Yuba County Superior Court.