The Associated Students of Chaffey College barred a student newspaper reporter from a meeting held to remove the student body president from office. The reporter protested that under California’s open meeting laws, public bodies may only close meetings to discuss employee issues but that the president was not employed. (Student Press Law Center, October 24, 2013, by Samantha Sunne)
The Moreno Valley City Council is attempting to pass a new policy allowing the city clerk to destroy public documents including recordings of council meetings after 39 days instead of 6 years under current policy and to destroy e-mails immediately. Open government advocates say that all records no matter how seemingly trivial are part of the public record and must be retained for a reasonable time to allow citizen access. (The Press-Enterprise, October 21, 2013, by Cassie MacDuff)
Citizens in Grover Beach are objecting to the procedures of a city council committee formed to look into drafting a city charter. In November voters rejected a measure to change the city from a general law city to a charter city, but the council is persisting in studying the issue by appointing a committee. Subsequently, the public was not notified of the committee’s meetings. (The Tribune, October 22, 2013, by Kaytlyn Leslie)