Question
Does Brown Act specify that any board member and any school administration staff enjoy “special audience” privilege to join any board appointed committee’s discussion at anytime? If so, could you refer me to the specific section(s) regarding this? Does it mean that a board appointed committee chair must allow a board member (even she/he is not the committee member) to speak anytime during the committee meetings, but stop other audiences?
1. A board appointed committee meeting agenda only specifies 5 minutes at the beginning of the meeting for public comments on items “NOT ON THE AGENDA.” Does it mean that audience can have agenda item related input when that agenda item is discussed? Or, that means, the audiences can only comments on “ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA,” and then never have any opportunity to have input regarding the “ITEMS ON THE AGENDA”? At one board-appointed committee meeting I recently attended, the chair denied audience’s opportunity to have questions/comments related to the agenda items when the items were discussed, and said ALL public comments should be raised at the beginning of the meeting during the public comment period. To reform this question/dilemma: if the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting only allows input ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA, but later the meeting chair says that ALL COMMENTS must be raised at the beginning of the meeting, when and how should the audiences address their questions and comment about the “ITEMS ON THE AGENDA”?
2. Does a board appointed committee chair have the right to deny one audience’s opportunity to input “according to Brown Act,” but allow other audiences to input during the same meeting on the same items?
Answer
The Brown Act mandates that most meetings of a school board must be open to the public, but, for the most, does not specify who must be allowed to speak when during those meetings. In particular, we are not aware of any provision of the Brown Act that would confer “special audience” privileges on board members or school administrators. If a board member is in attendance at a meeting of a board-appointed committee, it would seem that the board member should have the same “public comment” rights as members of the public, but not greater rights. In fact, Government Code section 54952.2(c)(6) allows a majority of board members to attend a public meeting of a standing committee of the board if the attend “only as observers.”
With respect to your Point 1, Government Code section 54954.3 requires that “[e]very agenda” for the board’s regular meetings “shall provide an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the legislative body on any item of interest to the public BEFORE OR DURING THE LEGISLATIVE BODY’S CONSIDERATION OF THE ITEM ….” (emphasis added). Thus only allowing members of the public to address items not on the agenda appears to violate the Brown Act, which requires that the public be allowed to comment on any item before the board acts on it.
With respect to your Point 2, the Brown Act does not allow the committee chair to discriminate in who may speak during the public comment period.
As long as the speakers want to address matters “‘within the subject matter jurisdiction’” of the committee, they must be allowed to speak during the public comment period regardless of “speaker identity.” Baca v. Moreno Valley Unified School Dist., 936 F. Supp. 719 (C.D. Cal. 1996) (quoting section 54654.3). As that court and the California Attorney General have both noted, a board or committee can limit the total time allotted for public comment, but cannot pick and choose who gets to speak during that period — especially since this may well be viewed as a subterfuge for unlawfully discriminating in who can speak based on the expected content of what the speaker has to say. See id.; 75 Ops. Cal. Atty Gen. 89 (1992).
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