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Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Closed door assessor appointment – possible Brown Act violation

The Brown Act serves to facilitate public participation in all phases of local government, and prohibits " serial meetings" and communications amongst a majority of the members of a particular legislative body that take place outside the confines of a properly noticed meeting. In other words, under the Brown Act, a serial meeting in violation […]

April 21, 2016
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

When can a public Board claim attorney-client privilege?

Our municipal board, of which I am a member, recently convened a closed session meeting that was not listed as an item on the published agenda. The purpose of the meeting, which included a city attorney, was for several board members wanted to present their case against me as a Brown Act violator. I […]

March 25, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

School board keeping exorbitant attorney fees in closed session

[…] lawyer-client privilege other than those provided in this section are hereby abrogated. This section is the exclusive expression of the lawyer-client privilege for purposes of conducting closed-session meetings pursuant to this chapter. For purposes of this section, "litigation" includes any adjudicatory proceeding, including eminent domain, before a court, administrative body exercising its adjudicatory authority, […]

November 29, 2011
Latest News

Blog

Secrecy surrounding public employees’ pay & benefits makes mockery of democracy

[…] democracy. Collective bargaining agreements covering government workers are, almost everywhere, written in secrecy by negotiators who, on the government side, receive their marching orders from elected officials meeting behind closed doors. Proposals, counter-proposals, and the final handshake on an agreement all take place in an information blackout, with zero public scrutiny of, or input […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 24, 2015
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Minutes to be Approved Made Public

If minutes are to be approved at a Committee meeting that is a Brown Act Committee, do the minutes need to be available to the public 72 hrs prior to the vote- or at the very least, the same time they are given to the committee members?

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Does newspaper candidate forum constitute a quorum?

[…] to ask the candidates questions about why we should endorse their candidacy. Because there are three candidates currently on the same five-member council, does that constitute a meeting that should be publicly noticed? We are planning on writing a story about the forum to appear soon after the forum and use it for a […]

October 6, 2009
Latest News

Blog FAC News

Remembering FAC Founding Father and California Journalism Giant, Frank McCulloch

[…] plane passenger traffic. McCulloch made news himself in l972 when author Clifford Irving claimed to have interviewed the by-then reclusive Hughes for a book and Life Magazine serialized the story as authentic. Hughes called McCulloch, then working in Time-Life New York headquarters, to reveal it as a hoax, and McCulloch stopped the Life presses […]

May 31, 2018
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Does the Brown Act require minutes from city council meetings?

The Brown Act, the law that governs the extent to which local agencies such as city councils must conduct their meetings in a manner open to the public, does not require that a city council take minutes. The Brown Act only acknowledges that a minute book may kept for closed sessions and that a […]

June 5, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Time allotted for speaking at public meeting

[…] take-over of the Oakland Public Schools, the State Administrator, Randolph Ward, has maintained the following rule for public comment. At a regular State Administrator and/or School Board Meeting, a member of the public is restricted to three minutes of public speech on all agenda and non-agenda items. Is this rule a violation of the […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

School Board Closed Sessions with Administrators

[…] section 54954.5). Assuming the closed session was in violation of the Brown Act, a member of the public may seek to void an action taken at such meeting. The requirements for taking such an action require you to seek to have the agency "cure and correct" the action taken at the improperly held meeting, […]

June 14, 2009