Q: Is their any state law allowing the city to keep the names of an advisory committee recommending finalists for a governmental job secret? Our city manager came up with a secret panel to help select finalists for police chief and then refused to reveal their names until their work was done.
A: The analysis of whether an advisory committee is a “legislative body” subject to the Brown Act, California’s open meetings act, is not entirely straightforward. The relevant provision states that a legislative body includes:
A commission, committee, board, or other body of a local agency, whether permanent or temporary, decisionmaking or advisory, created by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body. However, advisory committees, composed solely of the members of the legislative body that are less than a quorum of the legislative body are not legislative bodies, except that standing committees of a legislative body, irrespective of their composition, which have a continuing subject matter jurisdiction, or a meeting schedule fixed by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body are legislative bodies for purposes of this chapter.
Cal Gov Code § 54952.
A 1973 California Attorney General (AG) opinion concluded that a local admissions committee was not “an advisory body of a local agency” under the Brown Act because it advised a single county officer rather than the county itself. 56 Ops. Cal Atty. Gen. 14 (1973). This conclusion is evidently based on the phrase “of a local agency” — that is, a committee that advises a single official is not an advisory body “of a local agency.”
A subsequent AG opinion followed this decision, concluding that the meetings of a task force comprised of private citizens appointed by the State Insurance Commissioner to render advice on public policy issues need not hold open meetings under the Bagley-Keene Act (the provisions of which are similar to those of the Brown Act). 75 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 263 (Nov. 12, 1992).
The AG said that neither the Brown Act nor the Bagley-Keene Act “applies to multi-member bodies which are created by an individual decision maker. However, boards or commissions which are created by statute or ordinance are covered even if they are under the jurisdiction of an individual department head.” Id.; see also Farron v. San Francisco, 216 Cal. App. 3d 1071 (task force not subject to Brown Act because it was “formed by the mayor” rather than city and two members of the board of supervisors included on task force did not serve in official capacity). This authority would support the position that the panel need not hold its meetings in public or otherwise comply with the Brown Act.
Although it sounds like the information has already been released, another way to get at the identities of the committee members might be the Public Records Act. That is, even if the meetings of the panel might be held out of public view, any records containing the names of the panelists would likely be subject to disclosure under the PRA.