Asked & Answered

Q: We believe that our employer in California scheduled several serial meetings and special meetings without proper notice and that discussions during those meetings resulted in retaliation against us. What Brown Act rules apply to this situation? A: Here is an overview of the Brown Act rules regarding serial and special meetings.  “Serial meetings” under the Brown Act involve a series of communications between a majority of the members of a particular legislative body in

Q: How does the California Public Records Act handle information stored in a database rather than a specific record (e.g. an existing, stand-alone document)? For example, if I’m looking for historical financial information on a public works project at my city, the data might be in a database and would require city staff to run a report against the database to provide me the data. How should I make such a request? Thanks for your

Q: For the past couple of years, the city manager sends a weekly update letter to the council & other staff. The letter goes out on Thursday each week. I have requested to receive this letter on the same date as the staff and council receive it, but they purposely wait seven days to send it to me saying that it is under the 10-day rule. I have sent them the section of California law where if

Q: I am helping a former inmate in Maine write a documentary on his case and we are trying to access a recording or a transcript of two conversations: the first took place at the prison and the second was a phone call that was made by the inmate from prison. We attempted to access them, but the prison authorities first said that they would release the information and then they told us that they

Q: If a city council establishes a protocol whereby the mayor may unilaterally decide to limit public comments on a topic to no more than 45 minutes, thereby preventing people present who wish to make public comments from speaking, is that compliant with the Brown Act? A: The Brown Act allows for the adoption of “reasonable regulations” for public comment periods, “including, but not limited to, regulations limiting the total amount of time allocated for