CalAware Today

CalAware Warns of Brown Act Strict Enforcement

Californians Aware (CalAware) has advised the state associations representing most local government agencies that their members may be subject to short-notice lawsuits for some common violations of the open meeting law.

La Puente Council Accused of Brown Act Breaches

By Anne Lowe

The La Puente City Council has received a demand for corrective action from Californians Aware Vice President Richard McKee in connection with a closed session described as concerning "pending litigation" in which council members voted on two items.

Montebello Warned to Cure Brown Act Violations

By Anne Lowe

Californians Aware last week issued a stern warning to the Montebello City Council regarding alleged Brown Act violations in recent closed sessions, the Pasadena Star-News reports.

Brown Act Violations Alleged in Library Takeover

OPEN MEETINGS

By Anne Lowe

The City of Santa Clarita is facing a lawsuit alleging Brown Act violations tainting the city council's recent decision to take over three libraries from the county system.

Chino Board Corrects Some Brown Act Violations

OPEN MEETINGS

By Anne Lowe

Chino Valley Unified School District trustees corrected Brown Act violations at their November 4 board meeting by disclosing facts related to items discussed in closed sessions throughout the past year.  But challenger Richard McKee says some compliance items are still due.

D.A.: No Brown Act Violation by Rose Bowl Body

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – The Los Angeles District Attorney's office has concluded that the Rose Bowl Operating Company did not violate the Brown Act at a recent meeting in which directors discussed renovation plans for the Rose Bowl, the Pasadena Star News reports.

Brown Act Violation Charged in Pact with Tribe

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – Business owners are accusing the City of Porterville of committing a Brown Act violation when council members approved an agreement with an Indian tribe in closed session six months ago.

Pomona School Board Admits Brown Act Breaches

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – The Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) board has admitted it did not comply with Brown Act provisions when it put items for discussion under closed session in four of its meetings.

D.A.: No More Mute Button in Council Meetings

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has told the Carson City Council to cease using a mute button to squelch public commenters during council meetings.

City-Funded Opinion Poll’s Origins Questioned

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – A Hercules city-funded public opinion survey about the potential scrapping of a "New Urbanism" development for a train station is catching flack from residents for the clandestine nature in which it was approved.

Decision Imminent in Principal's Dismissal Case

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS – A decision is expected soon in a case filed by a high school principal who was dismissed by the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District without any explanation in an open session.

Regents May Allow Videotaping of Their Meetings

By Anne Lowe

OPEN MEETINGS -- The University of California Board of Regents will decide Wednesday whether to scrap a decades-old policy restricting the use of recording devices at their meetings.

Judge's Ruling's Set to Reject Brown Act Lawsuit

OPEN MEETINGS -- A Tulare County Superior Court judge could throw out a lawsuit seeking to force the county Board of Supervisors to end its practice of holding lunch meetings without notice or access by the public, reports David Castellon in the Visalia Times-Delta.

Publishers: Put Agenda Posting in the Constitution

OPEN MEETINGS -- In reaction to the looming prospect of a budget-driven suspension of the mandate to prepare and post agendas for local government meetings governed by the Brown Act, the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) is asking the leader of the State Senate to head a measure to place on the statewide ballot an amendment to Proposition 59 of 2004 to make information about those meetings public as a matter of constitutional law, thereby removing local agencies' right to bill the state with associated paperwork costs.

Trustee Says Peers Acted by Illegal Phone Poll

OPEN MEETINGS -- Twenty-five years after the California Court of Appeal established that doing so was an unlawful serial meeting in violation of the Brown Act, a school board member is accusing his peers of using an unpublicized telephone poll to gain approval of action to be taken, reports Natasha Lindstrom in the Victor Valley Daily Press in Victorville.

Video News Group: L.A. Supervisors Met Illegally

OPEN MEETINGS -- An investigative video interview program, the Full Disclosure Network, is charging that recent Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meetings with California Congressional officials in their Washington, D.C. offices—although announced as public forums—were closed to observers in violation of the Brown Act, reports Dennis Romero for LA Weekly.

City Attorney: I'm a Brown Act Whistleblower

OPEN MEETINGS -- Redondo Beach Harbor Commissioner Harry Munns reports in a blog that City Attorney Mike Webb takes his job of enforcing the local government open meeting law so seriously that he recently told commissioners that if they did not correct a violation he would report them to the district attorney.

Budget Would Suspend Agenda Posting Mandate

OPEN MEETINGS -- "A little noticed item in Governor Schwarzenegger's revised budget is a great example of how efforts to craft a balanced state spending plan have truly become equivalent to searching your couch for spare change," observes KQED Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers in his blog, Capital Notes. The proposal: stop requiring local governments to post agendas notifying the public about meetings under the Brown Act, "thus suspending the state's obligation to pay for the cost of all that paperwork."

Filming Permitted of Marine Protection Sessions

OPEN MEETINGS -- An official from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative announced yesterday that he would finally allow the filming and audio recording of “work sessions” of the widely-contested process, reports Dan Bacher for AlterNet.org.

L.A. Supervisors, City Council in Brown Act Suits

OPEN MEETINGS -- In two unrelated actions, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles City Council have been sued for alleged violations of the local government open meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act.

CalAware's McKee Demands Decision Reversal

OPEN MEETINGS -- Richard McKee, open government compliance officer for Californians Aware, yesterday demanded that the Westminster City Council rescind action taken by a three-member majority at an unannounced meeting, as reflected in a joint letter deciding on competing parade permit applications sought by rival Vietnamese community groups, reports Chris Prevatt for LiberalOC.com.

Ordinary Employees Entitled to Brown Act Notice

OPEN MEETINGS -- The fact that most people working for local government agencies in California are "employees at will"—subject to dismissal for any or no reason—does not deprive them of the right to 24-hour written notice when the governing body of their agency proposes to discuss complaints or charges against them in closed session, the California Court of Appeal has ruled.

Council: Our Agenda Wasn't Intended to Mislead

OPEN MEETINGS -- A city council's firing of its city manager in a closed session labeled "evaluation of performance" rather than the more accurate statutory listing "discipline/dismissal/release" is being criticized as a violation of the Brown Act, but at least one council member says no deception was intended—the decision to fire the manager arose only once the evaluation discussion got going.

Orange County Trustees Breach Brown Act Again

OPEN MEETINGS -- An Orange County Superior court judge has concluded that the board of the Capistrano Unified School District violated the Brown Act in August 2008 in its concealment of a closed-door disciplinary action against its then-superintendent, the fifth time the board has been reprimanded for violating the open meeting law in the past three years, reports Scott Martindale in the Orange County Register.

McKee Sues Supervisors to End Private Lunches

OPEN MEETINGS -- Californians Aware co-founder Richard McKee—newly named the organization's Vice President/Open Government Compliance—has sued the Tulare County Board of Supervisors to end its habit of lunching together without complying with the Brown Act when a voting majority is present and charging the meals on county credit cards, designating them as "work-related."

CalAware Demand Gets Board to Rethink Lunches

OPEN MEETINGS -- After a Brown Act lawsuit threat from Californians Aware, Tulare County Supervisors today agreed to put their practice of lunching together privately at the county’s expense before official meetings on hold while waiting for staff to draft policy concerning supervisor meal and travel expense reimbursement, reports Jenna Chandler in the Porterville Recorder.

Robo-voting Lets Council Members Meet Offstage

OPEN MEETINGS -- Members of the Los Angeles City Council are marked present and voting on open meeting agenda items—and voting Aye to boot—even if they're outside the council chamber and down the hall at the time, huddled in private meetings with one another, staff, lobbyists or developers, report David Zahniser and Maeve Reston in the Los Angeles Times.

CalAware Sues to Open College Benefits Meetings

OPEN MEETINGS -- Californians Aware and its founding president, Richard McKee, have filed suit against a labor-management committee of the Los Angeles Community College District established to maintain the quality and control the costs of the district's employee health benefits program. 

SEE UPDATE FOLLOWING POST

CalAware Demand Leads to Reversal of $29K Raise

OPEN MEETINGS -- The Yuba Community College District Board has reversed its grant of a $29,000 raise to its chancellor, unlawfully approved in a recent closed session, after a demand for correction by Richard McKee, founding president of Californians Aware, speaking for himself and CalAware.  As reported by Erin Tracy in the Woodland Daily Democrat,

Attorney's Exonerating Letter Gets Taken Apart

OPEN MEETINGS -- An attorney for the Garden Grove Unified School District has issued a letter advising the board that trustee Lan Quoc Nguyen did not violate the public-meetings law when he had brief discussions with two fellow trustees about who would nominate whom for board offices, minutes before the start of a regular board meeting last month, reports Deepa Bharath in the Orange County Register. But a critical blogger takes the attorney's letter apart.