Brown Act

Is a contracted City Attorney a city employee? Q: Are contracted City Attorneys considered city employees? I’m asking because the city I cover has scheduled a closed-session meeting to review the job performance of its City Attorney. This comes at a time when a few council members want to replace the current attorney, who charges $130 per hour, with a full-time, in-house attorney that would cost more. If the City Attorney technically is not a

Applicability of Brown Act to public charter schools Q: Is the Board of a Public Charter School bound by the Brown Act? A: The answer to your question depends on whether the public charter school was “created by” an elected legislative body—or receives funds from a government agency and whose governing body includes a member of the legislative body—for the purposes of the Ralph M. Brown Open Meetings Act and is therefore subject to the

Q: What is the obligation of a body that is required to comply with the Brown Act with regards to informing the public of how to access their agendas and minutes? Direct requests to the body for agendas and minutes has been ignored.  Is there a procedures or process that public citizens should be aware of? A: The Brown Act does not require government bodies to keep minutes. However, under section 54957.5 of the Brown

Authority to call school district special meetings Q: I attended an emergency meeting of the School District that was called not by the president but by one of the directors on behalf of the manager. The president wasn’t informed of the meeting until it was all set up and an agenda posted. The lone director stated in public (meeting is taped) that he called the meeting, saying he as a lone individual can call the