Name the Best/Worst Public Meeting E-Agendas

OPEN MEETINGS -- The folks at the Modesto Bee plan to spark a little public interest in what's otherwise a pretty dreary subject: the language and other online approaches bureaucrats use to alert the community of the business to be discussed at impending public meetings.  Let them know your favorite worst agendaspeak—or best use of the Internet to highlight coming meetings—by tomorrow.

Under the Brown Act, California's open meeting law, public agencies are required to provide public notice and written agendas before the meetings of their elected boards and certain advisory groups. These days, many agencies do this through their Web sites —which reduces paper use and should make it easier for the public to keep track of issues in their communities.

Some agencies do an excellent job of this; others, not so much. Later this month, we want to grade the accessibility and clarity of public agendas. We invite readers' input. Do you read agendas occasionally or regularly? Which agendas are easy to find and which are not? Which agencies provide useful backup material and contact information? Which do not? What other public information should be easy to locate? And is it?

Please send your thoughts to Judy Sly, editor of the Opinions pages, at [email protected] by Tuesday, January19.

Comments

[Al McCombs]

Another area which might be worthy of investigation for openness is public notices. While the law permits cities to summerize new ordinances instead of printing them in full, I believe it also requires them to include information so that the general public can understand what the ordinances cover, rather than just say "changes are being made to section xxxx of the zoning ordinance." Many summaries fail to do this.
The other public notice problem is notice of hearings about items involving "Tract 2034" without saying where it is, and similar code names that leave the public in the dark.

Al McCombs, Champion Newspapers, Chino