Local governments are allowed to conduct public business behind closed doors to discuss a limited range of issues. Carolyn Schuk provides a primer on the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, in the Santa Clara Weekly. -db From a commentary in the Santa Clara Weekly, November 17, 2011, by Carolyn Schuk. Full story
The public may never know the truth about alleged sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain because Cain’s former employer, the National Restaurant Association, signed confidential settlement agreements sealing the lips of all involved. These confidential agreements, argues Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute, often do great harm by shielding dangerous people and products. -db From a commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle, November 15, 2011, by Wesley J. Smith. Full story
After losing bid to show the Tulare County Board of Supervisors violated open-meetings law by holding closed lunch meetings, the plaintiffs are asking the California 5th District Court of Appeals to reconsider their ruling. The Court ordered the plantiffs to pay legal costs in ruling the issue moot since the supervisors no longer conducted lunch meetings. -db From the Visalia Times-Delta, November 15, 2011, by David Castellon. Full story
Q: Our newspaper made an public records request for ”all emails to and from city employees” regarding a new parking meter system the city is using. Our intention is to see whether employees have written emails stating that the system is not working properly. In response, the city attorney exempted an unspecified number of emails citing a ’deliberative process’ exemption in CCC 6252(d), 6254(a) and (k) and 6255. He cited cases including Rogers v. Superior
Howard H. “Tim” Hays, the much honored former editor, publisher and chairman of the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, CA, and founding member of the First Amendment Coalition, died October 14 in St. Louis. He was 94. “Tim was a rarity, a man whose moral compass was set on true,” Mel Opotowsky recalled in a Press-Enterprise article. “That is especially important as a newspaper owner because of the obligation as a public trust. There are many instances