Reality Check is a Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com.

After learning information from The Sacramento Bee, a Sacramento city councilwoman is calling for an investigation into whether the city violated state law when it shut out the public from a portion of its most recent meeting.

Ahead of Tuesday’s 3 p.m. closed session meeting, the city in its agenda notified the public it would be discussing a performance evaluation for City Manager Howard Chan — one of the few reasons the state’s Brown Act allows elected leaders to talk behind closed doors.

That exemption allows councils to discuss disciplinary pay decreases for city employees, but not raises, said David Loy, a First Amendment Coalition attorney specializing in the Brown Act, the state law that requires governmental bodies to inform the public on the agenda items that will be discussed at meetings.

Government bodies “shall not include discussion or action on proposed compensation except for a reduction of compensation that results from the imposition of discipline,” the act states.

When a reporter shared this restriction with Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, she said she wanted to call for an investigation.

“I’m very disturbed to hear that the salary negotiations are not allowed to be conducted in closed session under the Brown Act,” Valenzuela said. “I will be asking the city attorney for an investigation into whether a violation occurred on Tuesday.”

The private discussion was slated to start at 3 p.m. and went on for over two hours.

Meanwhile, members of the public were filling the council chambers to share their viewpoints on the $1.6 billion city budget the council would approve later that night. By the time the council entered the packed chambers to start the meeting, the council meeting was 34 minutes behind schedule.

The council on May 28 also held a closed session to discuss Chan’s performance.

Chan did not respond to a message seeking comment.

“I do not have information about what is discussed at closed session other than what is published on the agenda,” city spokesman Tim Swanson said.

The agendas for the two meetings that contained the apparent Brown Act violations, on Tuesday and May 28, were not on the city webpage that contained archived agendas on Wednesday. When The Bee emailed City Clerk Mindy Cuppy to ask why, she added them to the website.

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” Cuppy wrote in an email Thursday. “The issue has been resolved and the meetings are showing on the meeting archives.”

Chan highest paid city manager

Chan’s compensation has come under public scrutiny in recent years.

In June the state controller data showed Chan earned more than any other city manager in California in 2022 — $547,905 in total wages. That’s more than the city manager of San Jose, the biggest city in California that, like Sacramento, has a system of government where the council and the manager wield executive power, and is also more than Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Just about six months later, in a late-night meeting without proper public notice, the council voted to give him another raise to bring his $400,000 base salary to $420,000, including 240 hours of leave time that could be cashed out at his discretion. Valenzuela, along with Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Mai Vang, abstained.

In early January, after The Bee reported the raise had violated the Brown Act, the council effectively rescinded it, pulling it for consideration at a future meeting, which has not yet happened. It also changed the rules to prohibit Chan from placing a raise for himself on future agendas.

In the last two weeks, the item to discuss Chan’s performance has shown up on two closed session meeting agendas, indicating he may still be trying for a raise.

But discussions about whether to raise an employee’s salary have to be done in the open, Loy said.

“Nothing is more fundamental than overseeing how public money is being spent,” Loy said. “This needs to be debated in public so the public can hear the reasons on why this person is being paid the amount he is, and the public can then comment on it. The Brown Act prohibits pre-cooking things in closed session that you then approve in the open. It’s no different than asking, ‘what do u think about this ordinance? You gonna vote yes?’ That’s why we have a Brown Act.”

The city is also misusing another exemption of the Brown Act to close the public out of discussions, Loy said.

Last summer, leading up to the now-rescinded December raise, council met in closed session four times under an exemption to “for a matter pertaining to negotiations with unrepresented employees: the City Manager”

That exemption should only be used for city unions, not individual city employees, Loy said.

The city used the same negotiations exemption in 2024 and 2023 for the city auditor, city clerk, city attorney and director of the Office of Public Safety Accountability.

The next council meeting will take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Chan’s contract expires Dec. 31. He became city manager in 2017.