State legislators are proposing laws to alter the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, to meet changing circumstances. Assembly Bill 1944 would require a remote participation option for city council, commission and school board meetings. (Patch, February 18, 2022, by Eric He)
Senate Bill 1100 changes the Brown Act to establish a more precise definition of the provision to remove citizens for “willfully interrupting” a public meeting. The new wording would define disruption as “intentionally engaging in behavior during a meeting of a legislative body that substantially impairs or renders infeasible the orderly conduct of the meeting.” The bill would also require that a warning be issued before removing a citizen. (Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2022, by Hannah Wiley)
Laguna Beach officials scotched a proposal to release public meeting agendas almost two weeks before a town council meeting, citing a lack of staff. They say most staff reports aren’t finished in time. The council agreed to publish brief descriptions of issues as early as possible. (Voice of OC, February 17, 2022, by Hosam Elattar)
Citizen group ReOpen San Diego is sing San Diego over an ordinance preventing anyone doing business or attending meetings in the city building unless they are vaccinated. The lawsuit claims the ordinance violates the Brown Act by keeping the public out of meetings. (Times of San Diego, February 17, 2022, by Ken Stone)
A trustee of the Sonoma Valley school district accused other trustees of discussing official school business at a conference in San Diego in December. The trustees were alleged to have discussed disbanding a special education advisory council initiated by parents to bring concerns about special ed to the trustees. (Sonoma Index-Tribune, February 15, 2022, by Emily Charrier)
The Santa Monica city council voted to find out who was leaking confidential information from closed meetings, a violation of the Brown Act. (Santa Monica Outlook, February 10, 2022, by Jorge Casuso)
A coalition of neighbors are suing the Berkeley City Council for cutting a secret deal with UC Berkeley to allow the university to proceed with developments. The suit alleges that the council violated the Brown Act in approving the deal July 13 in closed session without disclosing the results to the public. (The San Jose Mercury News, February 6, 2022, by Katie Lauer)
Anaheim faces a $96 million fine over charges that they sold the Angel Stadium illegally and after closed door meetings about the fine, said there was nothing to report, prompting charges that they were not open and transparent. (Voice of OC, February 4, 2022, by Spencer Custodio)
Palo Alto Daily Post Editor Dave Price, January 22, 2022, alleges that City Manager Ed Shikada regularly disclosed information in e-mails to the city council he did not want to disseminate to the public. Shikada countered that the e-mails to the council were public records since the Post was able to obtain them through the California Public Records Act.
A Superior Court judge ruled that the Mission Viejo City Council did not violate the Brown Act in negotiating Stein Mart redevelopment in closed session. A property owner had filed the suit claiming that the council did not properly inform the public of the details of the closed session results. (Voice of OC, January 19, 2022, by Angelina Hicks)
The Fontana City Council made a $1.1 million pay out to the departing city manager and refuses to explain why he was paid to leave his job with the city. (Daily Bulletin, January 16, 2022, by Jason Henry of the Pasadena Star News)