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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

Individual Meetings for Review

[…] to shape them in a way the board would approve at an upcoming review. At the second public review, he and board members mentioned these private meetings. It doesn't sound as though board members talked amongst themselves in the period between the first and second public reviews. Does this constitute serial meetings and therefore a violation?

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

Commissioner advised speaking to press could give rise to Brown Act violation

[…] very concerned that this interpretation of the Brown Act violates my First Amendment right of freedom of speech, and also censors the press. Obviously I wouldn’t be meeting with commissioners in private to discuss a subject, or even publicly to discuss a subject. I would be speaking to the press publicly. I would appreciate […]

December 5, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Engaged couple running for school board a conflict of interest?

[…] ethical, implications of the factual scenario that you present. Violations of the Brown Act would be implicated here if the two board members somehow create a " serial meeting" through communications with each other, which are then related by them to other board members either directly or indirectly (i.e., through intermediaries such as staffers). Under […]

July 7, 2010
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Did email exchange between committee members violate Brown Act?

[…] Committee, privately, on campus, that he would be moving to New York and would not be teaching anymore at our college. He said we would have a meeting about his leaving as soon as he learned about what sick time he had left, etc. He didn't know when it was he would be resigning. […]

March 16, 2015
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Intimidation of Journalists

[…] traced the IP address) and the next few comments were probably made by the same person. They could almost be viewed as threats. That along with a meeting recently requested by a city council member. When Publisher and Editor showed up he had unexpectedly to us invited another city council member and together the […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Appointing board members and the Brown Act

[…] and only those applications received by November 1st of the year prior to elections will be considered. New Board members are elected at the Board's February regular meeting. However, nothing shall prohibit the Board from drafting new Board members at any time during the year should the need or a vacancy arise." The school […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

City Attorney says legal analysis is a CPRA exemption

[…] subject of an open or closed session of City Council. Can City Attorney distribute such a memo to City Council members without it constituting an impermissible unnoticed serial meeting? Any other ideas for how citizens can get analysis made public? Analysis is crucial to City Council decision to go forward with contract with private outdoor […]

June 10, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Community College Senate, Listservs, and Public Record

[…] Public Records Act. With regard to the Brown Act, there is a question on whether the communication among senate members via the listserve you reference constitutes a serial meeting in violation of the Brown Act. As you appear to be aware of, the meetings of the academic senate of a California community college are subject […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

City Councilmembers texting each other while deliberating

[…] a "serial" meeting in violation of section 54952.2(b)(1) might have occurred. The Attorney General's guide offers other illustrations of violations of the Brown Act's prohibition of such serial meetings that you might find helpful as you analyze the situation in Pomona. Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to […]

July 10, 2014