The intrepid political reporter whose work led to the passage of California’s open meeting law has died. He was 92. In his first year with the San Francisco Chronicle, Walter Harris found himself thrown out of meetings of local agencies that should have been open to the public and media. He wrote a 10-part series, “Your Secret Government” that resulted in the Open Meetings law of 1953, written by Assemblyman Ralph M. Brown. Asked for a preamble to the law, Harris wrote, “The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.” (San Francisco Chronicle, October 7, 2014, by David Perlman)
Efforts to secure open meetings continue throughout the state:
An open meeting advocate is objecting to the way the Encinitas Union School District board is attempting to remedy an alleged Brown Act violation. The school board held a retreat in Palm Springs attended by a quorum of board members. The board wrote a letter saying that they enacted no policies and took no action and said they would hold no more retreats in the future. Californians Aware said the district must put the retreat item on an agenda and approve the corrections in an open meeting. (Encinitas Advocate, October 8, 2014, by Jared Whitlock)
The Las Vergenes Municipal Water District has been accused of violating the Brown Act by moving an item from an open to a closed meeting. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s integrity division found that the water board should have allowed an opponent of a new water tank an opportunity to address the board on the issue. (The Acorn, October 8, 2014, by Sylvie Belmond)