After mistakenly voting for a change in the city’s general plan in January without public notice, the Lakeport City Council revoked the vote, reasserted their commitment to open government and scheduled a public workshop to inform the community about the Brown Act. -DB
Clear Lake County Record-Bee
Jan. 2, 2009
By Tiffany Revelle
LAKEPORT – The Lakeport City Council held a workshop Jan. 2 to inform the public and the council about Brown Act and Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) requirements.
City Clerk Janel Chapman said the workshop is held every few years as a refresher, normally when new council members are elected. To her knowledge, such a workshop was not held following the November 2006 election, when council members Jim Irwin and Ron Bertsch now mayor were elected.
“I think what happened is that we had made a couple of mistakes. They were inadvertent things with the new mayor we hadn’t opened some things up to the public. We don’t want it to appear that they were being done on purpose,” Council Member Suzanne Lyons said.
The Brown Act was enacted in 1953 by the state legislature to ensure the public could access and participate in local government meetings and decisions. It requires that the public’s business be conducted in public.
“It’s important for the public to know about it, too, because if people are in the audience and something happens that is not in the parameters of the Brown Act, they need to know. We’re working on having an open government, and that’s what the Brown Act is all about,” Lyons said.
Lyons said part of what raised concerns for her related to Brown Act requirements was a January meeting where the council took a vote concerning the city’s general plan update before the public was given a chance to comment.
The result of the vote was to drop a 2007 decision to include provisions in its updated general plan for incorporating City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District (CLMSD) in the city’s sphere of influence, which is land the city intends to eventually annex.
“The council thought they were reiterating something they had already done, but that was not the case,” Lyons said.
That decision will be back for review during the city’s regular meeting Jan. 2, held after the workshop at 6 p.m. Lyons said the public will be given an opportunity to comment on the decision, and the council will likely clarify and strengthen the language of its decision as policy in the general plan update.
“We want to make sure it’s very clear to staff and to the public what the intention is,” Lyons said.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 created the FPPC. It regulates campaign financing and spending, financial conflicts of interest, lobbyist registration and reporting, post-governmental employment, mass mailings at the public’s expense and gifts and honoraria given to public officials and candidates.