The small town of Hughson swore in three new city council members with feelings of elation and renewal after recalling three former council members that the Stanislaus County Civil Grand Jury found had violated California’s open meeting law, Hughson’s Municipal Code and Fair Political Practices Regulations and Code. -db
Turlock Journal
August 31, 2010
By Maegan Martens
After eight [...]
A citizen accused the Pomona Unified School District board of violating California’s open meeting law by holding discussions in closed sessions about a parcel tax proposed for the November ballot. The board’s attorney says the board acted properly in that all votes concerning the parcel tax were conducted in public. -db
Contra Costa Times
August 31, 2010
By [...]
Three members from the Goldman family are running for the Fremont Union High School District board in a contest for three open seats as observers expressed some skepticism about whether, if all three are elected, they could successfully observe California’s open meeting law and avoid discussing school district business around the breakfast table. -db
San [...]
A San Bernardino County teamster’s union has charged the Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority with failing to convene in open session before adjourning to closed session, a violation of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db
Big Bear Grizzly
August 27, 2010
By Arrissa Owen Turner
Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority violated the Ralph M. Brown [...]
The Fontana Unified School District board president said he stopped citizens from talking during public comment period because according to California Education Code Section 7054, citizens could not discuss district issues at school board meetings to promote ballot measures or political candidates. -db
Fontana Herald News
August 26, 2010
By Alejandro Cano
It has happened at least [...]
A Superior Court judge has ordered California State University of Stanislaus to comply with public records laws and release a speakers contract with Sarah Palin. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
August 26, 2010
By Nanette Asimov
California State University at Stanislaus violated public records laws and will have to release the speakers contract with Sarah Palin it had tried [...]
On the heels of a Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Brown Act violations by the county Board of Supervisors, the Visalia Times-Delta argues that the judge should have recognized the overriding importance of the public’s right to know how elected officials conduct public business. -db
Visalia Times-Delta
Editorial
August 26, 2010
Naturally, we at the [...]
A superior Judge ruled against a newspaper’s suit against Tulare County Board of Supervisors, holding that there was no proof that business was conducted at lunches paid for by taxpayers. -db
Visalia Times-Delta
August 24, 2010
By Valerie Gibbons
A Tulare County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit seeking to stop the county Board of Supervisors from [...]
A superior court judge ruled that the Los Angeles Times could publish photos of a murder defendant taken with the court’s permission. The judge said the attempt to bar the photos was unconstitutional prior restraint. -db
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
August 20, 2010
By Kenneth Ofgang
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s order barring publication of photos that were taken [...]
A superior court judge indicated she would dismiss an open meeting lawsuit against the Tulare County Board of Supervisors from lack of solid evidence. The supervisors were alleged to have violated California’s Brown Act by meeting regularly for lunch, they claimed, to build team solidarity. -db
Visalia Times-Delta
August 21, 2010
By Valerie Gibbons
A Tulare County Superior [...]
The Porterville City Council decided not to restrict public comments to those items on the agenda even though members of the community wanted to comment on the agenda would have to wait their turn.
California’s open meeting law says the public has a right to comment on issues before government agencies make decisions. -db
The Porterville Recorder
August [...]
Amid accusations that they are more concerned with leaks than with the safety of children, the Los Angeles County supervisors ordered an investigation of what they termed “inappropriate disclosure of confidential child welfare information” to the Los Angeles Times. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 18, 2010
By Rong-Gong Lin II
In a contentious 4-1 vote, Los Angeles County [...]
When interviewing candidates for police chief behind closed doors, the South Pasadena City Council failed to mention it in the agenda leading to allegations that they violated California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db
Pasadena Star-News
August 18, 2010
By Brian Charles
SOUTH PASADENA – A reserve cop with ties to the police officer’s union and a [...]
Redondo Beach has launched social networking pilots to create greater transparency and public participation, but the city attorney warns of complications concerning California’s open meeting law, the First Amendment and the expense of maintaining the sites. -db
Redondo Beach News
August 18, 2010
By Sascha Bush
The City Attorney’s office spoke to the Redondo Beach City [...]
Transparency advocates are wondering if recent changes in Obama administration management mean that Obama is stepping back from his commitment to open government. -db
NextGov
August 16, 2010
By Aliya Sternstein
As the Obama administration gently pushes agencies to follow their transparency plans, recent changes in key management positions at the White House have watchdog groups concerned the open government [...]
Legal experts say that California’s open meetings law does not allow cities to create secret advisory committees not open to the public. -db
Pasadena Star-News
August 14, 2010
By Brenda Gazzar
PASADENA – Open government advocates said city officials should release the names of members of two secret review boards that advise the police chief.
At least one expert [...]
Los Angeles County have asked departments to investigate inappropriate disclosure of child welfare information, but in making the request in a closed meeting, according to legal experts, have violated the California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 15, 2010
By Lisa Girion
Los Angeles County officials are investigating information released regarding a [...]
To comply with California’s open meetings law, the Brown Act, the Fillmore Unified School District board of trustees changed its policies on banning recording of its meetings and their requirement that speakers to the board provide an address before making comments. -db
m.vcstar.com
August 4, 2010
By Cheri Carlson
Fillmore Unified School District trustees have made some changes to [...]
A Los Angeles Times columnist says the fleecing of the small city of Bell by its own elected officials has prompted a flurry of citizen activity in public records requests. But experience shows that public officials can conjure up a myriad of excuses for and stratagems to withhold information from the public so citizens must persist. [...]
A federal judge ruled that a group of Texas cities cannot join in the suit to overturn the state’s open meetings law because the cities have no guarantee of free speech. Seventeen public officials are challenging the constitutionality of the law that forbids a quorum deliberting behind closed doors. -db
Reporters Committee for Freedom of [...]
A California state agency has informed San Diego County that its advisory group members in unincorporated areas were public officials and must comply with state laws governing officials including open meetings laws. The County has established a number of advisory groups to tap local knowledge in setting policies.-db
Ramona Sentinel
August 9, 2010
By Karen Brainard
San Diego County [...]
A Los Angeles Times editorial argues that a bill in the California legislature to grant families of murdered children the power to keep autopsy reports sealed would prevent public scrutiny that could improve the criminal justice system and protect families. -db
Los Angeles Times
Editorial
August 3, 2010
California lawmakers should reject a bill that would give families of [...]
A citizen accused the Morgan Hill mayor of violating California’s open meeting law when the mayor refused to allow him to speak during a recent city council meeting. The mayor said the man couldn’t speak because he did not fill out a speaker card and give it to the clerk at the start of the [...]
The Air Pollution Control District Board established two committees to develop a plan for the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area but said according to the county counsel, the committee meetings would be closed to the public as they worked out how to reduce emissions contributing to pollution in the area. -db
New Times
July 28, [...]
Through her attorney, an Alameda city councilwoman has asked the Alameda County District Attorney to drop its inquiry into her alleged leaks of confidential information in violation of California’s open meeting law. -db
Alameda: Attorney for councilwoman asks DA to close investigation of alleged open meeting violation
The Island
July 27, 2910
By Michele Ellson
City Councilwoman Lena Tam’s attorney [...]
The Orange Unified School District board of trustees has allegedly violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting act in failing to observe the rules governing teleconferencing votes. According to the act, all votes during teleconference must be rollcall votes. -db
Greater Orange News Service
July 26, 2010
With Trustee Kim Nichols participating in the June 10, 2010 OUSD [...]
An editorial in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat calls for the Sonoma County employee association to release information on pensioners receiving over $100,000 a year. In a recent case in Sacramento County, a judge ruled that under California’s Brown Act Sacramento County could not keep pension information from the public. -db
Pubilc agency pensions: Editorial reaffirms [...]
In a court filing, the Tulare County supervisors admitted violating California’s open meetings law in holding regular lunch meetings they had earlier claimed were only to bolster their esprit de corp.
Tulare supervisors admit open meeting law violations in holding lunch meetings
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20100721/NEWS01/7210323/Court-filing-Tulare-County-Board-of-Supervisors-admitted-violations-to-open-meetings-law
Visalia Times-Deta
July 21, 2010
By Valerie Gibbons
A new court filing argues that Tulare County supervisors admitted [...]
Pasadena Star-News
Duarte intends to make courts decide the fate of Azusa Rock Quarry
By Daniel Tedford, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/23/2010 07:15:06 PM PDT
DUARTE – The city is going to take legal action against Azusa over a recently approved plan to
mine part of the Azusa Rock Quarry near Duarte’s border.
City Council members at their meeting Thursday voted unanimously [...]
The District Attorney of Amador County is investigating allegations that the county supervisors cancelled a meeting then held the meeting anyway, thus violating California’s open meeting law. db
Ledger Dispatch
July 23, 2010
By Matthew Hedger
The Amador County Board of Supervisors may have violated provisions of the Brown Act by holding
a meeting after mistakenly announcing, both publicly and on the county’s own website,that it had been
canceled.
A timeline of events shows a public hearing to hear an appeal of a planning department decision
by a local resident was scheduled for June 26. That hearing took place, and was continued to
July 6. A mix-up in the supervisors’ office apparently resulted in a mis-communication about that
meeting, although all of the supervisors, the person asking for the appeal to be overturned, Tom
Hunt, and a neighbor who opposed the action, Barbara Cobarruviaz, all traveled to the project
site on Fiddletown Road.
But neither the press, nor the public, had an opportunity to attend the meeting, because it had
previously been listed as canceled and had never been posted nor noticed.
District Attorney Todd Riebe confirmed to the Ledger Dispatch that a complaint had been filed
with his office.
“We’ve received a complaint which we are investigating,” said Riebe, who could not confirm a
complaint to the state attorney general’s office in Sacramento had also been made. Phone calls
to that office were not immediately returned.
“When an allegation involves the board, there’s some issues there,” Riebe said. ”I’m going to
take a look at it, and if she (the complainant) wants a second opinion, she can have at it.”
Riebe said if action had been taken at the meeting, it would be an issue, but pointed out no action
had been taken.
“I’m looking at it. It’s under investigation. She’s going to be interviewed, and she can state what
her objections are,” Riebe said.
In the hours leading up to the 2 p.m. meeting on July 6, office staff discovered the error and
called County Counsel Martha Shaver for advice. Shaver indicated it would be OK for the ”field
trip” to continue as long as no formal action was taken.
“She told them they could go out and visit the site, they just couldn’t take any action. They would
have to continue it to the next meeting,” explained Deputy Board Clerk Sheri Robinson. ”They
decided to not take any action that day and continue the matter to the following meeting,
because it wasn’t properly noticed.”
Staff re-agendized the hearing for July 13, where the appeal was granted, overturning the
planning department decision on a 4-1 vote, with Board Chairman Brian Oneto casting the lone
no vote.
In an interview with the Ledger Dispatch, Oneto explained what happened.
“At an earlier meeting on June 22, we’d looked at that Tom Hunt appeal, and (District 4
Supervisor) Louis Boitano said, ’Why don’t we have a field trip out there and take a look at it,’”
Oneto said. ”So we set the date for the field trip for July 6, a special meeting to address it. The
lady who I think is unhappy, the decision did not go in her favor. The decision was 4-1. I voted
no, not to overturn it.
“But we showed up out there and we said, ’There’s been a posting problem, so we cannot make
a decision on site,’ which was the original intent,” he added.
Oneto said the board wanted to balance the needs of the opposing parties, and tried to do the
right thing.
“We came in the morning of July 6 and said, ’oh my gosh, this thing wasn’t posted out front,’ the
intent was to post it at the property also, not that you legally have to, but it wasn’t posted there
either,” Oneto continued. ”So we talked to county counsel and explained the situation and said,
‘you know, everybody’s expecting us out there at 2 o’clock today. Shall we cancel this meeting
or not, when these people are waiting out there for us.’ And Martha said go ahead and have the
field trip, just do not make a decision.”
Oneto said he felt it was a technicality that didn’t affect the business at hand.
“We were kind of between a rock and a hard spot,” he said. ”We told people we’ll show up, we’ll
be there, we’re going to have a meeting there. We couldn’t just not show up, so we thought we’ll
have a field trip, we’ll go out there, we’ll take a look at it, we’ll come back, we’ll post it on the next
regular agenda and try to come to a decision, which is what we did.”
Oneto said, although it was inadvertent, he agreed the decision to go ahead and hold an
improperly noticed meeting could be construed as a Brown Act violation. ”It possibly could,” he
said.
Oneto said he was saddened at being taken to task over the issue.
“Basically, what’s really sad about it,” he said, ”was that the board went the extra mile, to go out
and look at something onsite because there were some questions, and to get beat up, due to a
technicality, well, all the parties that had shown interest were there. We also informed them there
had been a glitch and it hadn’t been properly posted, so we were not taking action that day, but
we’d still like to take a look at it and we’ll take action at a future board meeting.”
Oneto said it could be a case of sour grapes.
“The lady who’s complaining, she was at all three meetings,” Oneto said. ”We were straight up
and said, ’Hey, there’s been a problem, we talked to county counsel and asked what is a good
course of action.’ We did not want to inconvenience people. I think it’s someone making a
mountain out of a molehill.”
Oneto assured the Ledger Dispatch that the error was innocent.
“Is it possible that we may have got caught in a posting mix-up? Yes, but we did the best we
could to try and straighten it out,” he said.
Copyright 2010 Ledger Dispatch
The County Grand Jury has recommended that three members of the San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees be censured for violating the Brown Act,the state’s open meetings law. -db
The Record
June 29, 2010
By Jennifer Torres
STOCKTON — Three members of the San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees should be censured for violating the state’s open-meetings [...]
A college of the Redwoods trustee has alleged that the Academic Senate violated California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, by holding secret meetings. The salvo is part of an ongoing dispute between the professors and the trustees over budget cuts. -db
The North Coast Journal
June 24, 2010
By Ryan Burns
College of the Redwoods Trustee George Truett [...]
A Santa Clara County grand jury reported that the Sunnyvale City Council violated the Brown Act, California’s open government law by appointing an interim council member in 2009 without providing adequate public notice. -db
San Jose Mercury News
June 22, 2010
By John dugan
The Sunnyvale City Council violated the Brown Act, California’s open government policy, when it appointed [...]
Weighing the family’s right to privacy to the public’s right to know, a Superior Court judge released most of the records sought by the media pertaining to last year’s murder of an eight-year-old girl. The judge withheld autopsy photos. -db
Tracy Press
Jun 14, 2010
By Jaclyn Hirsch
STOCKTON, Calif. — Judge Linda Lofthus decided this afternoon to unseal [...]
Eight Tulare citizens filed suit over actions by the city council who met twice in closed session to discuss the city manager’s complaints against a councilman. The lawsuit holds among other things that the closed session did not meet conditions of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, for holding a closed session. -db
Tulare Advance-Register
June [...]
A member of the Adelanto School District board claims that the superintendent and board president committed the district to the second round of the Race to the Top program without public discussion. -db
Victor Valley Daily Press
June 14, 2010
By Natasha Lindstrom
ADELANTO, Calif. – A member of the Adelanto School District Board of Trustees is accusing [...]
A Catholic high school refuses to release the details of a football coach’s punishment for a recruiting violation claiming the school is private and not subject to the California Public Records Act. -db
Los Angeles Times
Opinion
June 13, 2010
By Eric Sondheimer
Transparency and openness are virtues that parents and students expect from their high school sports programs, but [...]
The Lodi Unified School District trustees held closed-door interviews for board openings and selected two finalists. The only problem was that in doing so they violated a long standing bylaw to hold the interviews in a public meeting. -db
Lodi News-Sentinel
June 11, 2010
By Jennifer Bonnett
Three Lodi Unified School District trustees finished closed-door interviews of applicants for [...]
Six Hughson citizens have stepped up to run for seats on the City Council in the August recall election. -db
The Turlock Journal
June 11, 2010
By Maegan Martens
At the end of the candidacy filing period on Thursday, six Hughson residents submitted their applications to fight for a seat on the City Council in the Aug. 24 recall [...]
To save government agencies money, the Senate Budget Committee wants to suspend the requirement that agendas be posted 72 hours in advance. -db
Merced Sun-Star
Editorial
June. 11, 2010
The same money problems that saw 2009 become the newspaper industry’s worst financial year in history now threaten a key part of the public’s right to know.
The state Senate’s Budget [...]
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