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Asked and Answered

Brown Act

City Clerk requires Ad Hoc reports to be in announcements

Why would our city clerk require city Commissions to move all ad hoc reports and standing committees from agenda items to the announcements portion of the meeting? They are not listed on the agenda unless the ad hoc specifies the exact language of the action/recommendation for our city council. Then it gets more complicated […]

October 6, 2009
Asked and Answered

Bagley-Keene Act Brown Act

Closed meeting and the Brown Act

[…] closed session on Tuesday, the board is scheduled to convene in open session to vote on 'Amendment #11' to the chief's contract, according to the public meeting agenda. Details of the amendment will be available after the board finalizes it in closed session, said district spokeswoman. 'They are going to make copies available to […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Public comments on water rates closed, item still on agenda

The current City Council Agenda contains the following item: "DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS. Introduce and Waive the First Reading of One of the Three Ordinances Relating to Establishing Rates for Water Service Fees." Here is the problem. We are not being allowed to comment about this item at all, even though it has […]

November 25, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Public Records Non-Compliance, Filing Suit, and Non-Response

[…] found my requests harassing and she would never answer my letters again. She has kept her word. The board has refused to place this non-compliance on an agenda. And when I have attempted to bring this up under "Items from the Community," they rule me out of order and disruptive and adjourn the meeting […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Has the Brown Act changed to allow votes on items not on agenda?

[…] members were told by the city attorney that the city no longer has to abide by some of the provisions of the Brown Act. He was citing the city's ability to vote on an issue that was not on the agenda, telling them it was OK. Has the Brown Act been revised to include this change?

March 22, 2015
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Can I be charged for agenda-item documents?

I attended a fire board meeting tonight where the preliminary budget was on the agenda. They had the budget in a binder on the table. They claimed that providing the budget in that way met the requirement to have the document "available" to the public. If I wanted my own copy I had to […]

October 20, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

City Council allowing presentation not on the agenda

[…] our last City Council meeting our mayor personally invited a federal government agent to speak during our public comment session, although this presentation was not on the agenda. Our mayor allowed him to speak over the allowed three minute time period and allowed City Council members to ask questions of this man, but the […]

August 24, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

Can a city council member control clapping during a meeting?

[…] a "local agency" in California. Govt. Code §§ 54951, 54952. Such meetings must generally be open to the public, with opportunity for public comment, based on an agenda made available to the public in advance, except to the extent the Brown Act specifically allows certain matters to be discussed in closed session. With respect […]

April 24, 2025
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Is it a Brown Act violation to move item from closed to open session?

[…] Council violated the Brown Act at a recent meeting when councilmembers voted 5-0 to move a closed-session item, described only with the name of an individual to the Regular Agenda. Can you tell me if it was proper for the City Council to move a closed-session item to the Regular Agenda during the Open Meeting without […]

March 13, 2014
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Defining “action taken” and sufficiently describing agenda items

[…] entries are so vague they fail entirely to describe the possible actions that ultimately (at the same meeting) get taken. For the most part, every student government agenda item is listed as "discussion," even so failing to impart any important information as to what's at stake.For instance, a recent agenda item said: "Business Manager's […]

June 14, 2009