transparency

A Solano county supervisor said her colleagues have resorted to back-room meetings to discuss future plans for the Solano County Fairgrounds. She complained that since there were no reports on the issue from the staff for the last six months that secret meetings must have been convened to instruct the staff.  A staff member said there were only two meetings on the issue, both in January and both were properly noticed to the public. -db

A Superior Court judge ruled that Monrovia had not violated open meetings laws by making changes to public documents in secret before approving revisions to a development project. The judge said the changes were minor so did not violate the letter and the spirit of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. -db From Monrovia Patch, February 21, 2011, by Nathan McIntire. Full Story

Last summer under fire, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors discontinued “morale-building” luncheon meetings not open to the public. Now the Santa Rosa City Council has resumed a practice of meeting at private dinners that they claim are solely for generating congeniality. But open government advocates are asking if it is advisable to hold the dinners privately so that members of the public cannot verify that council members discussed no city business in violation of