City Council acts on issue not on agenda
Q: Earlier this month our mayor – during the oral portion of the city council meeting — stated that he decided to name a city building after a former member of the council who is also a former assemblyman. He asked for unanimous concurrence of the council. Two members of the council questioned the propriety of the action, but the mayor changed the request to a majority concurrence.
The issue of naming the building and/or honoring the former colleague was NOT on the agenda.
At the next council meeting an item was put on the council agenda to discuss adopting a policy and/or procedure for naming of public buildings. The mayor appointed a committee to address the policy/procedure. However, he refused to do anything about the previous meeting’s action.
Since the issue of naming a public building was not on the council agenda – and there was no allowance for public comment – is this a Brown Act violation?
A: As you have presented the facts, it would certainly appear that there has been a Brown Act violation. If an action item wasn’t on the agenda, action should not be taken on it. That is not a matter that can be overridden by unanimous consent, although it appears such consent was not given in any case.
We hope that is helpful.