Lawsuit alleges supervisor appointment was illegal ‘inside job’

Alameda County Supervisor Dave Brown may have been appointed illegally, an attorney for a county taxpayer group said this week.

Brown was appointed to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in mid-November to fill Supervisor Wilma Chan’s seat after a driver struck and killed her as she walked in Alameda about two weeks earlier.

Attorney Jason Bezis has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Alameda County Taxpayers’ Association that is seeking to get Brown out of office by having his appointment declared null and void.

Bezis said:

“It was an inside job to put Brown in there.” 

He makes several arguments in the suit for the alleged unlawful nature of Brown’s appointment, the strongest of which is a residency requirement, Bezis argues.

According to the county charter, Brown is required to be a resident of Alameda County for one year before he can be elected to the board, Bezis said.

County Counsel Donna Ziegler argued in a letter to Bezis on Jan. 21 that Brown is exempt from that requirement because he was appointed, not elected.

Ziegler said that Bezis and the taxpayers’ association have not offered any charter provision to support their claim that Brown must meet a residency requirement beyond registering to vote in the supervisorial district before his appointment.

But in 1964, the California Attorney General gave a legal opinion to San Mateo County officials stating that an appointee to the Board of Supervisors must be a resident for one year, Bezis said.

Brown, formerly Chan’s chief of staff, resided in Contra Costa County until four days before his appointment, Bezis said. Bezis said Brown now has a residence in Oakland.

Board of Supervisors President Keith Carson was unable to comment at this time, his spokesperson Melissa Male said by email.

The other supervisors and Ziegler, the county counsel, were also not immediately available to comment on the lawsuit. Brown’s term ends in June.