On the heels of a Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Brown Act violations by the county Board of Supervisors, the Visalia Times-Delta argues that the judge should have recognized the overriding importance of the public’s right to know how elected officials conduct public business. -db
Visalia Times-Delta
Editorial
August 26, 2010
Naturally, we at the Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register were disappointed that Tulare County Superior Court Judge Melinda Reed dismissed a lawsuit alleging Brown Act violations by the county Board of Supervisors.
But we were no more disappointed than those at 800 other member newspapers of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, which had also joined the lawsuit by First Amendment advocate Richard McKee over the practice of supervisors meeting in private over lunch.
The defendants have characterized this legal action as frivolous and spurious, but it is anything but. The principles surrounding this case are paramount. They include the effectiveness of California’s open-meetings law. They include the right of the public to know how their elected representatives conduct public business. They affirm the importance of open government on behalf of the people.
We’re disappointed because those important principles of the law were not affirmed in our local court. They should have been, because the flouting of the Brown Act violated the trust of the people of Tulare County, and people ought to be outraged over that.
We need to make one thing clear: This newspaper did not initiate the lawsuit. It was filed by an advocate and expert in open government. The Times-Delta/Advance-Register joined it only after it was filed, along with the California Newspaper Publishers Association. We joined it because of the importance of the principles of open government on behalf of the people.
In a nutshell, the plaintiffs, including this newspaper, alleged that supervisors met over lunch as a voting majority 46 times last year. The supervisors billed the public for those lunches and certified that they were “work-related” and for “official business only.” We believe that this is an admission that the majority was conducting county business. The Brown Act prohibits a voting majority of elected officials from meeting in private, except for purely ceremonial or social situations.
The court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to allege that supervisors conducted official business at the lunches and refused to let the lawsuit move forward to trial on the merits. We’re astonished at the ruling because it puts an unfair burden of proof to allege specific details of Brown Act violations on the plaintiffs at this early stage of the lawsuit.
The proceedings of a secret meeting are by definition secret. Direct proof is possible only if someone at the meeting reveals the proceedings.
According to that logic, the Brown Act is toothless and might as well not exist.
It’s disappointing that a local judge would not allow local plaintiffs to have their day in court.
Those principles will not be tested here in Tulare County, but they will be tested, whether on appeal or in some future action. We look forward to seeing them affirmed on the side of open government and on behalf of the people. It is the people who will benefit, and they have told us that they demand and expect open government.
The public should be outraged that their elected officials so blithely dismiss action on behalf of open government as “frivolous.” They should be outraged that they are being played for suckers.
If people are content to pay for lunches at secret meetings by their elected supervisors, so be it.
But they ought to be angry. They ought to demand that their business be conducted in the open. They should express their frustration to supervisors. Write them at 2800 W. Burrel Ave., Visalia, CA 93291. Or write the newspaper at Box 31, Visalia, CA 93279.
They should tell officials they want their government to be open and public, and they will go to any length to ensure that happens, even to trial in a court of law. We accept nothing less.
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