Is there such a thing as too much free speech for a mayor?
No, we’re not talking about former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. We’re talking about a California mayor whose opposition to having trains full of crude oil move through her city is getting her in some hot water with the city attorney.
As the Sacramento Bee reports, “the situation in Benicia provides an unfolding civics lesson on the sometimes-surprising legal tightropes cities and public officials must walk when dealing with high-stakes issues. The trains in question would pass twice daily through downtown Sacramento and other Northern California cities en route to the Benicia refinery.
The city has been engaged in a tense debate over a proposal from Valero Refining Co. to bring crude oil to its Benicia plant on railcars. Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, a longtime environmental activist, says the city attorney has privately advised her that her comments about the project could be seen as bias against the oil company’s plans.
Patterson said she has been advised to stop talking about the proposal and sending out emails with articles critical of the proposal. She has also been advised to recuse herself from voting on the project if and when it comes before the city council.
Patterson has refused.
“I am providing information. I am letting people know what is going on,” she told the Bee. “We ought to be talking about this.”
Valero is the city’s largest employer. The company owns and operates an oil refinery on a hillside over Suisun Bay, and wants to begin receiving two 50-car oil trains a day sometime next year. Valero officials say the shipments will help keep the refinery competitive in a fast-changing oil industry by providing rail access to cheaper oil, instead of marine shipments from Alaska and foreign countries.