Asked & Answered

A&A: Convening in closed sessions

Convening in closed sessions Q: Our school board will be visiting the school site/employer of the finalist in our District superintendent search.  We are a 5-member board and 4 trustees want to participate in the site visit, which will be outside our District boundaries.  We want to fully investigate the performance of our finalist with face-to-face interviews with co-workers, parents, community members, etc. We fully intend to post an agenda once we determine who our

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A&A: Serial Meetings

Q: I’m an education reporter, and have been covering local school boards for years. I need to clarify the term Serial Meeting. Can two board members meet to talk about issues in general — frustrations, general strategies, how to counter personal attacks — and then have one of them meet with a third board member to discuss the same types of general issues? Assume there is no discussion of how to vote on action items

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A&A: Collective concurrences, serial meeting, and the Brown Act

Collective concurrences, serial meeting, and the Brown Act Q: Much of the material I’ve found prohibits use of email when its intent is “to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken by the board”. What about using email to other directors to distribute information, to express an opinion, to alert them to an urgent matter, etc.? In other words, communication not intended to directly or immediately influence concurrence? For volunteer boards, especially

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A&A: Time restrictions on public comment at public meetings

Time restrictions on public comment at public meetings Q: I am the chair sunshine task force and it came up in our recent meeting that mayor has recently, on occasion, limited public comments at council meetings to one minute rather than the normal two minutes because 25-20 people wanted to speak and the council meeting was “going late” at 10-11 pm and the council wanted to go home I am aware that California law does

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A&A: Closed meeting votes and the Brown Act

Closed meeting votes and the Brown Act Q: Under the Brown Act, can a sitting city council conduct a secret vote (no public notification) whether to consider a legally filed candidate for a city commission appointment, and then, refuse to make public how each council member voted or how the tally went when they do appoint candidates to a commission? A: The Brown Act prohibits action by secret ballot.  Gov. Code § 54953(c) (“[n]o legislative

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