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Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Closed Sessions and Permissible Topics

My local city council has apparently held closed session meetings on whether or not they will repair a l andslide on a city street. The agenda notification listed only pending litigation, but did not list the specific subject. These meetings resulted in public policy decisions. I have made a CPRA request for public records […]

June 14, 2009
Latest News

Cases Press Release

Settlement Reached in Free Speech Case at Temecula Valley Unified

[…] from school board meetings without proper cause or warning FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 16, 2024 Contact: fac@firstamendmentcoalition.org TEMECULA VALLEY — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the First Amendment Coalition reached a settlement with the Temecula Valley Unified School District on behalf of two plaintiffs, following the unconstitutional removal of school board […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Meetings
April 16, 2024
Latest News

The public does not get to see what’s in the new BART contract until it’s a done deal. Why is that?

In a few days the members of unions representing BART workers will complete their vote to approve a new contract---a collective bargaining agreement. The vote will finalize the agreement, making it legally binding on both the unions and on BART. And only then, when the ink has dried and the agreement is a fait […]

October 29, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Do Chair’s new rules for committee members violate the Brown Act?

[…] drafted a set of "communication protocols" that would: prevent any committee member from going to an outside agency for resolution without first going through the City Staff and the Chair. The timeline to follow this process could take up to a week or more, which would be long after violations had been observed and thus […]

May 21, 2015
Latest News

Revisiting Citizens United decision: Not as harmful as feared, and actually provides a 1st Amendment rationale for curbing super PACs

[…] of CU. Super PACs are the political equivalent of hedge funds: professionally managed investment vehicles pooling the contributions of like-minded, high-net-worth individuals to support a candidate. CU opens the door to the legal argument that aggregating contributions from multiple donors into a common pool can never be independent, constitutionally-speaking, of the candidate. Before getting deeper […]

June 1, 2012
Latest News

Blog Cases

Latest FAC suit secures release of Sonoma County Superbowl Contract

[…] disclosing a complete, unredacted copy of a contract to promote tourism in connection with the Super Bowl. In denying PRA requests for the contract submitted by local news media and FAC, the county said the contract was exempt because it contained trade secrets. Further, the county said the contract—-between the county tourist bureau and […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
March 9, 2016
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

Swearing in public commenters at open meetings

A local city council has adopted various new rules for members of the public wishing to address the council. The most concerning issue is: "The presiding officer may require any person to be sworn as a witness before addressing the council on any subject." They go onto to state that anyone making false statements […]

June 14, 2009
Latest News

Blog Cases

New “drone memo” to be released to FAC . . . and other developments in FAC’s legal cases

[…] The first Justice Department legal memo, dated July 16, 2010, was released last month following a court of appeals decision that substantially sustained FOIA claims of the New York Times and the ACLU. The Obama administration chose not to appeal that decision as part of a deal with Senate Republicans, who had blocked the […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
July 11, 2014
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

Video Tapes, Free Speech, and the Brown Act

To comply with the Brown Act, our City Council has separate Oral Communication periods; there are periods for Agenda Items, and Non-Agenda City Business. In our past election cycle during the 2-minute Non-Agenda Item Orals a video tape of a candidate was played. Video tapes are allowed to be used by speakers. The City […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA Police Records

Despite New Laws, My Request for Police Body Camera Footage Has Been Repeatedly Denied

In light of SB 1421 and AB 748, I submitted a request to the city and the police department for the body camera footage and internal affairs investigation report of an incident that happened at my home involving the discharge of a firearm at a person (me) by a peace officer and the use […]

February 8, 2021