A Mendocino County resident told the Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO) on Nov. 3 that he believes the executive officer has already treated a CEQA negative declaration as adequate and moved the process forward without commission discussion, potentially raising Brown Act concerns.

Lee Howard, who gave the commission a printed handout during public expression, said he was not speaking to the substance of the Redwood Valley or flood control proposal but to ‘‘process.’’ He said, “it appears now that that isn't happening in this case,” and that the executive officer ‘‘has at least given an opinion that a negative dec[laration] is plenty good and adequate.’’ Howard suggested two possible explanations: either the executive officer discussed and reached the conclusion with commissioners outside an agendized meeting, which he said would raise a Brown Act problem, or the executive officer acted unilaterally without sufficient transparency.

Staff later addressed the Redwood Valley application during the information-and-report portion of the agenda. A LAFCO staff member said the commission’s office received a full application from the Russian River Flood Control District for annexation of the Redwood Valley County Water District and that staff has routed the application for agency comments and to county offices to initiate the tax‑share process. The staff member said, “the application will remain incomplete until a tax share agreement is adopted by both the board of supervisors and the Russian River Flood Control District board.”

The staff report also noted that LAFCO had commented on the flood control district’s negative declaration during that district’s public hearing as a responsible agency and that any CEQA findings for the LAFCO record will be presented to the commission as part of the application public hearing.

No commission action on the Redwood Valley application was taken at the Nov. 3 meeting. Public commenter Lee Howard finished his allotted three minutes before the commission proceeded to other business. The record in the meeting transcript does not show any formal finding of a Brown Act violation or any commission determination about the adequacy of the CEQA document during this session.

Background and next steps: staff said the application remains incomplete pending adoption of a tax-share agreement by the two affected local bodies. When the application is complete, LAFCO will schedule the matter for a public hearing and will consider the CEQA document and any required findings at that time.

For now, the public record shows an unresolved process concern raised during public comment and a staff statement that formal action on the annexation will wait until statutory procedural items — chiefly a tax-share agreement — are in place.