Sunshine Ordinances in California
Although state law–mainly in the form of the Brown Act and the Public Records Act–governs access rights at the local level, cities and counties are free to enact ordinances that provide GREATER RIGHTS OF ACCESS than state law. These local laws providing extra rights are often referred to as “Sunshine” laws.
At last count, seven local governments in California had enacted such laws: Benicia, Contra Costa County, Milpitas, Oakland, Riverside, San Francisco and Vallejo.
Below are the texts of each of these Sunshine laws. They vary significantly in their methods for strengthening state law access rights. To assist you in understanding what these laws do–and to help you pick and choose among the provisions for a proposed Sunshine law for your own community–we have highlighted the language in the local laws that differs substantively from state law. Focus on the highlighted language.
While the seven listed communities have chosen different paths, CFAC would like to offer for your consideration one strategy that, as yet, has not been pursued or implemented in California. That strategy is as follows:
Instead of drafting new legal rules and standards, simply list the court decisions and statutory amendments that, over the years, have punched the biggest holes in state access protections, and state that these decisions and amendments shall NOT apply in your community.
That way you will achieve huge improvements in access rights, while minimizing uncertainty about the effect of your local law and retaining the predictability and clarity of the existing framework of state statutes–all in a package that can be promoted (accurately!) as merely restoring the Brown Act and the Public Records Act to the forms in which they were originally adopted.–Peter Scheer
The Friends of Friday Night Football filed a lawsuit against the Palos Verdes Peninsula United School District claiming the district violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, when they abruptly voted to shut down a project to provide stadium lights. The advocates of stadium lights had raised money from the project and proceeded [...]
The San Mateo District Attorney’s Office is investigating an alleged violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law after, without it being posted on the agenda, the Pacific Planning Commission took up Caltrans’ plan to widen Highway 1. -db From the Pacifica Patch, October 5, 2011, by Camden Swita. Full story
Baylor University President and former Solicitor General Kenneth Starr writes that there are lots of good reasons to improve public access to the deliberations over vital issues by the U.S. Supreme Court. Starr notes that the current court has ruled emphatically for the First Amendment but is loathe to allow the public easy access to [...]
A report by two freedom of information organizations shows that the United States only ranks in the middle of the pack in passing laws to provide public access to government information. Serbia rates number one with such nations as Liberia, Mexico, India near the top. The lower end includes Germany at the very bottom in [...]
Santa Clara is blocking access to the 49ers stadium security report when many are concerned about fan safety after some recent violence at 49ers games. Interim City Attorney Elizabeth Silver refused a public records request for a report prepared in 2009 by the now retired Santa Clara police chief. The city is concerned about releasing [...]
The videos of Prop. 8 lawsuit videos will not be released while federal appeals court considers whether the videos would endanger witnesses and compromise the credibility and integrity of the federal judiciary. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary hold on the videos after Chief U.S.District Judge James Ware ruled on Sept. 19 [...]
An editorial in the Los Angeles Times argues there few reasonable justifications for the Los Angeles County supervisors to hold discussions with Gov. Jerry Brown behind closed doors on the impending shift of inmates and parolees to local control. In discussing policy concerning the shift, the supervisors claimed they had to meet privately to confer [...]
The Los Angeles County police union is fighting the Los Angeles Times over the newspaper’s quest for pension information that the union claims if made public could endanger the lives of retired officers. In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, the union argued that in pitting the public’s right to know against legitimate safety issues, [...]
With San Luis Obispo County judges awarding themselves over $235,000 in annual benefits, the California Attorney General is considering whether the Commission on Judicial Performance can bring sanctions against them. With control over the budget, the judges began giving themselves extra benefits without complying with state regulations regarding compensation from public funds and with the [...]
A former City Council candidate has filed a complaint with the San Bernardino County District Attorney alleging that the council had committed two open meeting violations. The first was not reporting an action taken during a closed session and the second concerned a resolution to create a supplemental retirement plan. -db From the Inland Valley [...]
The Tri-City Healthcare District board has been accused of violating the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, by holding a closed door session on strategic directions for the district before convening again in closed session to evaluate the performance of their CEO. Critics said the session on setting strategic directions should have been on an [...]
The Tri-City Healthcare District is asking a court to stop the San Diego Union-Tribune from publishing what they say are “privileged and confidential communications.” Tri-City accidentally provided the records in response to a public records request. The contents of the communications are not known, but among other things, Tri-City is upset that the Union Tribune [...]
The Ethics Commission, charged with hearing complaints filed by citizens about sunshine violations in San Francisco, has failed to act on all but a few complaints, allowing city agencies to destroy documents and defy requests for explanations, writes Claire Mullen in an investigative report for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Mullen provides a detailed rundown [...]
After a preliminary finding in May that the Capistrano Unified School District violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, the Orange County District Attorney’s office announced this week that they could not corroborate the finding. But the office found a lot to fault, using colorful language to criticize the way the district conducted meetings. [...]
Why is okay to withhold information transferred to electronic format when the same information in document form is available under the California Public Records Act( (CPRA)? That is the question the California Supreme Court will consider in reviewing a Court of Appeal decision that Orange County could charge the Sierra Club $300,000 for the Orange [...]
After a state appellate court ruled that the Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement Association could not refuse the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s requests under California Public Records Act for pension figures for county government retirees, the pension fund board acceded to the requests. In withholding the information, the pension fund board was complying with a 1937 [...]
Frustrated by delays and heavy redactions, the Los Angeles Times is suing for the release of records concerning the deaths of children under the supervision of the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. -db From the Los Angeles Times, September 15, 2011, by Garrett Therolf. Full story
With local authorities hamstrung by conflict of interest and lack of resources, California’s state attorney general office may step up to investigate alleged open meeting violations by the Willows City Council during a June 14 closed meeting. The council has been accused of discussing items not on the agenda and the budget in a closed [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Orange County Board of Supervisors for their policies regulating controversial commentary at their public meetings. The suit came after the supervisors cut off a speaker who in their opinion had wrongly criticized Vietnamese immigrants. -db For the Voice of OC, September 9, 2011, by Tracy Wood. Full [...]
The Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office informed backers of the outgoing Santa Barbara City College president that the college Board of Trustees had not violated the Brown Act, California’s open meetings law, by not disclosing the outcome of Superintendent-President Andreea Serban’s evaluation. The backers of the former president are seeking to recall three of the [...]
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring state university foundations, auxiliaries and bookstores to grant public access to their records. Jon Keigwin, chief of staff for Senator Leland Yee who authored the bill, said it would open a new era in accountability and transparency, “I’ve talked to several reporters who have been waiting for [...]
With Republicans benefiting by the conservative Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to make unlimited anonymous donations to interest groups to run political ads, Democrats are concerned that Obama has not issued an executive order requiring contractors for the federal government to disclose their campaign contributions. Conservatives are concerned that requiring disclosure could result in retaliation [...]
A new federal ruling extended the application of the Freedom of Information Act bolstering the attempts of California newspapers to obtain records of California lawmakers’ budget allowances and expenditures. The newspapers were petitioning for the records under the state’s Legislative Open Records Act. The federal district court ruling came down in August when the judge [...]
A superior court judge ruled that the Los Angeles Times had the right to identities of sheriff’s deputies involved in fatal shootings. The union for the deputies had contended that the names were private personnel information and to release them would create safety issues. The judge said public interest was paramount and ordered the sheriff’s [...]
California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris demonstrated the long reach of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, in her opinion that for majority of a Southern California city council to take an invitation-only tour of a Northern California water district facility would be a violation of the law. Harris also said that even if [...]
A California appellate panel held that the California Public Records Act required the Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement Association to release the names and benefits of its members. The association argued that disclosing the information would subject its members to consumer fraud, but the panel rejected that argument. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat had sued for [...]
Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino wants to repeal the Legislative Open Records Act that gives lawmakers legal exemptions from disclosing certain records. The proposed bill would make the legislature subject to the broader California Public Records Act. “Assembly leaders have hidden documents and expenditures from the public long enough. It is hypocritical of the Legislature to [...]
The Marin County district attorney told the Novato City Council they had to remedy an alleged open meeting violation by holding a repeat of its review of an affordable housing project. The new meeting was held August 23. California’s Brown Act, the open meeting law, requires public agencies to post their agendas at least 72 [...]
The California Supreme Court will decide if the State Bar must release racial data of those taking the bar exam. An appellate court ruled in June that the information could be made public so long as no private information were revealed. A UCLA law professor who believes affirmative action may hurt minorities wants the records [...]
Schools watchdog Jim Reardon lost his suit against the Capistrano Unified School District when a judge ruled the district properly dealt with an alleged viiolation of California’s Brown Act, the open meeting law. After Reardon challenged the district over a March closed door meeting to partially restore pay cuts to employees, the district met again [...]
With support from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Newark Secondary Parent Council (SPC) is asking the City of Newark to release correspondence from the city to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg involving Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to the Newark schools so that the parents will know of any stipulations the gift might carry. Said Laura Baker [...]
Sam Capistrano resident Jim Reardon sued the Capistrano Unified School District in March claiming the board held a closed door meeting to partially restore teacher salaries and failed to report their actions. Without acknowledging a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, the board subsequently held a public meeting to discuss teacher salaries, [...]
Two board members for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare bolted from a closed door meeting fearing that the panel had violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting act. One of the two requested a legal review of the issue during the meeting and left when he was not happy with the response. An anonymous source said [...]
With media partners the Student Press Law Center has filed an amicus brief to a federal appeals court arguing that a lower court ruled correctly in granting the Chicago Tribune access to public records about a secret University of Illinois admissions program. The university argued that the records should be withheld on grounds of “student [...]
Tags: accountability, Chicago Tribune, education records, educational records, federal privacy law, FERPA, privacy, RCFOP, SPLC, student confidentiality, transparency
In a quest to answer the California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakaye’s request that judges provide comment on ways to improve the Administrative Office of the Courts, Sacramento Judge Kevin McCormick says that over the last four weeks the administration has not been able to supply him with a list of administrators and their salaries. Earlier [...]
The administrative body for California’s courts has taken steps to improve accountability and transparency by opening key meetings and increasing the time for public comment. The changes came after judges and others criticized the courts for not being open to dissent and for its secretiveness. California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Jim Ewert said, “I think it’s [...]
The Chico Green School lost its charter and state funding partly because the school allegedly violated the Brown Act, California’s open meetings law. The attorney for the Green School said the Brown Act did not apply to charter schools since the act did not mention them. The judge who withdrew the state funding said charter [...]
The Sacramento City Council may have violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, when it quickly adopted a plan for Sacramento redistricting at its August 9 meeting, writes Melissa Corker for the Sacramento Press. Corker says the council suddenly presented a new map for redistricting after months of work by a citizens’ advisory committee [...]
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Wisconsin prison rule keeping prisoners from receiving documents under the state’s public records act that do not refer to the prisoner. The prisoner had circumvented the public records act by asking his grandmother to obtain the documents. -db From the First Amendment Center, August 12, 2011, by Douglas [...]
The Los Angeles Times with a number of other newspapers has sued the California Legislature to secure the office budgets and spending records of lawmakers and legislative committees. The Assembly Rules Committee rejected requests for the records last month saying they were exempt under California’s Public Records Act. The press wants to find out how [...]
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