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Showing 11 - 20 of 37 results

Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Criteria for Serial Meeting

Our former Mayor was involved in trying to develop a clandestine consensus to support his successor. Two councilmembers have said that the Mayor spoke about his support of his replacement, including the replacement himself, outside of a public meeting. We suspect a third, who often sides with the Mayor, was also consulted about who the […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Closed door meetings benefitted labor union at cost of public tidelands

[…] business that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body." Govt. Code § 54952.2 (emphasis added) . The Attorney General takes the position that a serial meeting, in violation of section 54952.2(b), may occur where there is a chain of communications (A communicates with B, B communicates with C, and so on), and/or […]

November 15, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Serial Meetings

The question: Does the below discussion of their previous individual discussions constitute a serial meeting violation under the Brown Act? Member A left his council seat to become mayor, leaving the two-year remainder of his council term open. Member B and C were newly appointed to the council – they were council members ELECT at […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Councilmembers texting during meeting a Brown Act violation?

We have noticed a new trend during City Council meetings. We are seeing council and staff texting/emailing to each other while on the dais. This is occurring during the public comment item of the meeting and includes the city attorney. We would like to CPRA these texts but believe they will either claim they […]

May 23, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Does the Brown Act apply when board members attend a Town Hall meeting?

At a recent Town Hall meeting, water rates were discussed. A majority of directors of the water district were in attendance to answer any questions. They did not notice this meeting. Items were discussed that they will vote on. Is this a Brown Act violation?

December 29, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Minutes of City Council meetings don’t tell whole story

[…] to items on its agenda and powerpoint presentations related to agenda items. The council offers a limited number of copies of this information at the city clerk’s desk on the night of the meeting but it is not reflected in the minutes or available anywhere after the meeting’s conclusion. What is the law regarding this?

March 7, 2014
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Collective concurrences, serial meeting, and the Brown Act

[…] immediately influence concurrence? For volunteer boards, especially of small organizations (such as our Park and Rec district), dealing from scratch with 100% of the organization's business exclusively in open monthly session does result in ridiculously long meetings. Given that directors are frequently loathe spending time between board meetings in issue-specific committees, what are the alternatives?

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Access to City Manager’s compensation denied

[…] form. With respect to the email communications between the three directors, violations of the Brown Act would be implicated here if the directors somehow created a " serial meeting" through communications with each other. Under the Brown Act, a "meeting" includes any congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative body at the […]

July 28, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Does Brown Act allow vote to be changed after a meeting adjourns?

[…] communicate with each other through other means on a particular topic, such as email or through an intermediary, this can also constitute what’s known as a " serial meeting" that would be subject to (or, more appropriately, in violation of) the Brown Act. Gov’t Code 54952.2(b). With the situation you describe, let’s say that within […]

July 10, 2017
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Emails and the Public Record and Brown Act

[…] Assuming that the "public board" to which you refer is a "legislative body" within the meaning of the Brown Act, the section of the Brown Act barring serial meetings, Government Code section 54952.2(b), provides as follows: Except as authorized pursuant to section 54953, any use of direct communication, personal intermediaries, or technological devices that is […]

June 14, 2009