Petrelis Files

(This thick, hard, uncut image reminds me of men I've known.)










BAR: HIV Vaccine CAB Complaint Goes to Full Sunshine Panel

The Bay Area Reporter's HIV writer, Matthew S. Bajko, after attending the sunshine task force's complaint committee earlier this week, has written a good and balanced story about the latest development in my effort to have the federally-funded, but locally-administered, HIV vaccine "community" advisory board.

One thing I learned from Bajko's story is the CAB has existed since 1993, and as far as I know, only one member of the public tried to attend one of their meetings and address the members, before they forced him out under threat of arrest, was veteran gay activist and person with AIDS, Hank Wilson. It's impossible for me to fathom and accept that a federal CAB, around for more than a decade, has never opened its meeting to public scrutiny, nor has the CAB released its minutes.

Thanks, Hank, for trying to bring much-needed openness to the HIV vaccine research effort in San Francisco.

Excerpted from the BAR:

The city's Sunshine Ordinance Task Force will review whether an HIV research community advisory body can meet behind closed doors. AIDS activist Michael Petrelis filed a complaint last month that the community advisory board was in violation of the city's sunshine policies for barring the public from its meetings and not distributing the minutes of those meetings.

The task force's complaint review committee voted Tuesday, October 10 to send Petrelis' complaint to the full task force for review. All three committee members present at the hearing agreed that the task force has jurisdiction over the matter.

"I am happy there will be more sunshine and transparency about my complaint," said Petrelis, who had brought a flashlight as a prop during the hearing, saying "people consider this a very dangerous weapon. I also look at it as sunshine."

The vote mirrored the direction Deputy City Attorney Ernest H. Llorente gave to the complaint committee last month. Llorente wrote in a letter to the committee that based on the applicable sections of the Sunshine Ordinance and the California Public Records Act, the task force "does have jurisdiction over the allegation" and that the task force can determine if the CAB violated public meeting requirements and public documents requirements.

The HIV Research Section created the CAB in 1993 as a way for the community to give input into the studies it conducts. CAB members are volunteers, and according to the section, there is no appointment process, no stipulated number of seats with specific representation, and no terms of service.

Petrelis, along with community activist Hank Wilson, argued at the hearing that the public should be able to attend the CAB meetings, know who the members are, make suggestions, and ask questions of the members. [...]

Wilson told the committee, "If I can't find out who is on it, that is a problem. I don't want my comments to be distilled by anyone. I want to speak directly to the CAB members."

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Dr. Susan Buchbinder, the director of the department's HIV Research Section and person in charge of the CAB, defended the closed door policy as necessary to protect proprietary information of the companies involved in the research as well as the personal health information of the CAB members. In a memo sent to the task force, Buchbinder repeated those contentions, stating that the advisory board "is not a public meeting body as it does not meet the definition of a public meeting body" and that it is not "a public policy nor a passive meeting body." The memo states that the minutes of any CAB meetings "are the sole property of CAB members and are not for distribution."

Federal officials also have sided with the CAB in the dispute. Matthew Murguia, the director of the Office of Program Operations and Scientific Information inside the National Institutes of Health's Division of AIDS, wrote in a letter to the task force that "it would be inappropriate" for the CAB to hold open meetings. He also stated that there is no federal requirement that the research section "operate its meetings in a specific manner" nor is there any requirement that the CAB meetings be "open to the general public."

"The inability to conduct closed CAB meetings would essentially destroy their effectiveness in engaging the community in addressing critical issues that impact on clinical trials," wrote Murguia. [...]

Six-year CAB member Robert Reinhart told the committee that the advisory body is in fact not a policy body but merely a discussion panel and agreed with Petrelis that the CAB should change its name to reflect that.

"I think we should not be called an advisory board. It is really more a discussion group on this confidential, trademarked information," he said. [...]

Task force committee chair Sue Cauthen stated that one of the key issues is whether the CAB is a policy body or passive meeting body and therefore falls under the city's sunshine ordinance. She questioned the health department's reasoning that the CAB fits neither criteria and asked of members "who vets them and tells them to be on it?" She also questioned why there was even a waiting list if there was no regulation limiting the make-up of the CAB. [...]

The full sunshine task force will take up the matter at its meeting October 24.

Let the sunshine in!