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A&A: Written correspondence to and from officials as public record

firstamendment June 13, 2009

Written correspondence to and from officials as public record Q: Several members of the City Council are considering a policy requiring council members to make public all written correspondence including e-mail rec’d from private citizens regardless of its content, citing the Brown Act and the desire for a more “transparent” city gov’t. A number of citizens believe that this is a violation of their 1st Amend & privacy rights and is just an attempt by

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A&A: Unauthorized meetings to discuss matters within jurisdiction

firstamendment June 13, 2009

Unauthorized meetings to discuss matters within jurisdiction Q: I have questions about the brown act.  If three city council members meet at private home owners associations and each discuss city business and pending issues the council will be voting on, is that considered a violation of the brown act? A: Government Code section 54952.2 (set forth in its entirety below) defines a “meeting” as follows:”[M]eeting” includes any congregation of a majority of the members of

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A&A: Unauthorized meetings and communication between members of a legislative body

firstamendment June 13, 2009

Q: This situation refers to a California Community College which is part of a large Community College District. The president of the Senate was picked up at her house by the president of the college and accompanied to a meeting which was held at the house of a faculty member from one of the other colleges in our district. The meeting was held in a city that is outside of our college district.  The Senate

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A&A: Is a task force a “state body” under the Bagley-Keene Act?

firstamendment June 13, 2009

Is a task force a “state body” under the Bagley-Keene Act? Q: Caltrans is holding Highway Task Force meetings and it has been announced that these meetings will not be open to the public. I received the following reply from the Caltrans public affairs: Since this is not a public meeting, the task force meeting will be made up of 10 members from each community that the project affects.  The meeting is informal and does

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A&A: Brown Act and statute of limitations

firstamendment June 13, 2009

Q: Does an action requesting purely equitable (injunctive) relief for a Brown Act violation have a statute of limitations? A: The statute of limitations for filing a Brown Act action for injunctive relief is quite short.  Please note that before suing for injunctive relief, you are required to make a written demand that the legislative body “cure or correct” the action.  Cal. Gov’t Code section 54960.1(b).  Generally speaking, the demand must be made within 90

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