When Bill Smallman, a director of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, announced two weeks ago that he would be requesting a Civil Grand Jury investigation of his own board and staff, citing a lack of transparency and payment of Terry Vierra’s legal bills, his four colleagues remained silent.
At least publicly.
The day after Smallman’s comments were published in the online version of the Sept. 1 Press Banner, Margaret Bruce went after Smallman in a post to hundreds of members of a private Facebook group, suggesting that there would be retaliation against Smallman.
“Patience…sharpen your lance, fletch your arrows, hone your blade…” she wrote on Sept.1, in response to questions from other members of the private SLV Free Group whether Smallman should be prosecuted for talking about closed-door conversations.
Her comments spun out into public Facebook groups a week later.
She told the Press Banner in an email that she had intended to spread a warning to Small through social media that he might face consequences for his criticism of his fellow directors and for revealing any content from closed-door meetings of the water district board.
After her comments were revealed, Bruce was no longer listed as a member of the group.
“My words were intended as a notice, a warning,” she wrote the Press Banner Sept. 12, in response to a series of questions. “In my opinion, disrespect for confidential information undermines the district and the work of the board.”
“I want Mr. Smallman to respect confidentiality. When Mr. Smallman fails to respect confidential information, I am going to raise my concerns with that, every time,” she wrote.
“Sure – it’s a warning that there is a list of actions on Mr. Smallman’s part regarding confidential information that I view with concern. I want him to respect confidentiality.”
Smallman declined to respond, except to say he expected the issue to be discussed at the Sept. 21 board meeting, when the directors also take up approval of five years of rate increases.
Bruce declined to say whether there had been any discussion among board members about the issue.
Lois Henry, a former member of the Lompico water board with Smallman, said the comments by Bruce were inappropriate for an elected official.
She was totally out of line,” said Henry of Bruce’s comment. “Of course she can say anything she wants when she talks to people, but to put what sounds like a threat on a social media site is just wrong.”
“She was talking behind Bill’s back, trying to work her troops into going after Bill with all their weapons of half-truths, character assassination, and misleading statements.” Henry said. “She knows she can’t deny what she said so it seems to me she is trying to make it sound like she intended for Bill to know she is going after him.”
The response by Bruce was the first time since the Vierra trial judgment in December that she had responded to repeated requests from the Press Banner for comment on board matters.
But not the first social media comments.
On July 20, on her own Facebook page, Bruce complained about local media: “Our society is undermined by the fake news crap. I wish they would just stop it!”
A month earlier, she had defended the board’s action calling in Sheriff’s deputies when two members of the public spoke out of turn, claiming “other public members have expressed their discomfort and felt threatened.”
