[KHTS] – A Brown Act complaint has been lodged against a Santa Clarita Valley elementary school district, the District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday.

A copy of the complaint alleges Saugus Union School District officials improperly discussed the process for Doug Bryce’s replacement outside of public session. The Brown Act – California’s open-meeting law – states among other things that with narrow exceptions, three or more members of a 5-member governing board can’t make policy decisions in private.

“We made no movement toward any decision whatsoever,” said board President Paul De La Cerda, addressing the concern alleged in the complaint. “We are following the process and no decision has been made whatsoever.”

The governing board for the Saugus Union School District is expected to discuss and make a decision about how to proceed at the board’s Oct. 14 meeting, said board member Judy Umeck.

Bryce’s resignation announced he would be stepping down Sept. 30, and Bryce said Wednesday he wouldn’t be at the meeting when the decision is expected to be made.

“We cant’ really do anything until there’s a vote,” Bryce said. “There was no vote on it, and there was no Brown Act violation.”

Saugus Union Superintendent Joan Lucid provided information to the governing board on the cost of a special election, which would be more than $700,000, Byrce said. An appointment costs the district next to nothing.

“There’s kind of a short time frame for the selection of a new person — they’ve only got 60 days,” Bryce said, referring to the timeline for how long school district officials have to replace a vacant seat.

“When (Lucid) made a copy of what we had done before,” Bryce said, referring to the appointment of David Powell to replace Stephen Winkler, “it had included the letter from (the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office) showing what the cost of having a special election was. That’s going to be a deciding factor with the board when they do vote on that decision — it’s a huge amount of money.”

The complaint notes Bryce was elected in November 2013, but announced in May 2014 he planned to leave due to a job opportunity. At a Sept. 2 school board meeting, he officially announced his intention to resign at the end of this month.

De La Cerda said the board had until Nov. 28 to fill the vacancy.

The deadline for Saugus Union School District officials to request permission from Los Angeles County to take part in November’s general election was Aug 8.

“Meetings of public bodies must be ‘open and public,’ actions may not be secret, and action taken in violation of open meetings laws may be voided,” according to the Brown Act.

Doug Bryce

The board has yet to make an official decision on whether to host an election or make an appointment, according to board members; however, according to the complaint, comments from Bryce in a previous KHTS AM-1220 interview seemed to indicate a decision had been made before the item had been publicly agendized.

“I did talk to the rest of the board and the cabinet about it,” Bryce said in a Sept. 4 interview for a story about the announcement of his resignation. “They’re putting together a timeline for the replacement and it’s going to follow the same process as we did when we replaced (ousted board member Stephen) Winkler and got (David) Powell.”

The quotes are mentioned in the copy of the complaint.

When asked why Bryce waited to announce his resignation, he cited “personal reasons.”

Saugus Union officials recently made an appointment to replace the seat vacated by former board member Stephen Winkler.

Saugus Union School District board members chose David Powell to fill a vacant board seat at a special governing board meeting in July.

There were 16 12-minute candidate interviews in which the prospective candidates were asked eight questions on topics such as the Common Core Standards Initiative and the Local Control Funding Formula, as well as how the prospective board member would handle an upset parent.

Powell, who has four children, one who’s enrolled in the Saugus Union School District, is an instructor and program director at Cal Lutheran for the Master of Public Policy and Administration program.

Before making their choice, school district officials discussed the fact that a stand-alone election for the seat would cost approximately $743,000, a figure confirmed by the county’s Registrar-Recorder Office on Friday.

Had the district chosen to add Powell’s board seat to the already scheduled November election, the cost would have been $84,000, according to officials.

There would be three seats open if in November 2015 if the district decides to seek an appointment.

Two would be for four-year terms and Bryce’s replacement, if appointed, would be for a two-year term. Rose Koscielny and Dave Powell’s board terms are up for election then, also.

The governing board is also looking to formalize the direction it has received from staff on how to proceed with its electoral process, after a letter was sent alleging a California Voting Rights Act violation.