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 Fontana City Council is faced with the problem of enforcing the city’s law against citizens’ interrupting a meeting while upholding free speech rights and the Brown Act, California’s open meetings law. -db
Contra Costa Times
June 9, 2010
By Josh Dulaney
FONTANA – It may not be a high crime, but heckling during City Council meetings might be [...]
Four parents have criticized the Del Mar Unified School District Board of Trustees for not allowing the community a reasonable opportunity to weigh in on the selection of a new superintendent. They say that bending the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, is not responsible leadership. -db
Del Mar Times
May 26, 2010
By Suzanne Hall, [...]
Full Disclosure Network, a cable news outlet, charged that their reporter and a camera crew were illegally ejected from meetings in which five members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors met with Senators Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and members of Congress. -db
PR Newswire
June 7, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Ten Capitol Hill meetings [...]
Noting that the state legislature is currently considering weakening provisions of the Brown Act, the California Newspaper Publishers Association has asked newspapers to run editorials in support of fully funding the Brown Act so that government agencies must post an agenda 72 hours in advance and then stick to it. -db
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Opinion
June 4, [...]
After a prompting from a reporter, the San Diego Unified School District acknowledged that they had to post and notify the media of all meetings 24 hours in advance. The Board of Trustees had posted notices for two meetings properly but failed to give the media adequate notice. -db
San Diego News Network
Opinion
June 3, 2010
By Marsha [...]
The San Leandro School Board approved a contract for a new superintendent but did not remove the interim tag from his title so that the public could have a chance to give their input on the promotion. -db
East Bay The Citizen.com
June 3, 2010
By Steven Tavares
San Leandro Interim Superintendent Cindy Cathey received a new contract [...]
Nick Judd of techPresident writes that open data alone does not allow the public to participate meaningfully. The citizenry needs training in assessing the reliability of data and also in interpreting it. -db
techPresident
May 26, 2010
By Nick Judd
This morning, danah boyd summed up the problem with the open data movement in a simple declarative statement: “Transparency [...]
Candidates in Tulare County supervisor districts 4 and 5 are weighing in on open government as citizens have been questioning whether supervisors’ actions adhere to the spirit and letter of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. -db
Visalia Times-Delta
June 3, 2010
By David Y. Castellon
The state’s open government laws are a major talking point [...]
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club that the California Public Records Act (CPRA) did not require the county to provide its Landbase parcel map system at little or no cost. In a ruling last year a state appeals court ruled in a First Amendment Coalition lawsuit [...]
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, Representative Susan Davis has proposed an amendment to strengthen a new law to require disclosure of campaign expenditures by special interests. The amendment would require mandatory disclosure reports to be filed electronically with the Federal Elections Commission so they could be posted expeditiously on their [...]
A Laney College administrator is investigating allegations that the student government has held secret meetings in the violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. Some thought that discussion meetings could be closed to the public, but the student body government’s constitution says that it must comply with the Brown Act. -db
Laney Tower
May [...]
When a director of the Amador Water Agency requested an item be added to a meeting agenda, a flury of e-mails ensued leading a fellow director to charge that the e-mails constituted a “serial meeting,” illegal under the state’s open meetings laws. -db
Ledger Dispatch
May 21, 2010
By Matthew Hedger
Tempers flared at a special meeting of the [...]
Unable to pay the last $300,000 in a $20 million reimbursement to local governments for the costs of posting agendas and providing copies of documents, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing in his budget that the state no longer require local governments to inform the public but still hold them to providing public access to documents [...]
A Grand Jury report says that a letter by a three person majority of the Taft City Council to one of their fellow councilmen asking him to refrain from commenting publicly about harassment charges against two councilmen could violate the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. -db
The Taft Independent
May 19, 2010
The Kern County Grand Jury [...]
Concerned citizens in the City College community questioned whether the San Jose City College Board of Trustees allowed the public a chance to give their input on a salary increase hastily passed in an emergency meeting that some say was not announced 72 hours in advance -db
City College Times
Commentary
May 12, 2010
By Charles Becker
An emergency closed [...]
A citizen of Los Angeles County filed a civil lawsuit claiming that county supervisors spent millions on projects without properly discussing the expenditures in public meeting. -db
Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2010
By Garrett Therolf
A Long Beach resident has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that county supervisors broke the law when they spent millions of taxpayer [...]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law lowing the monetary threshold for political candidates, lobbying firms and others to file financial disclosure records online. The new threshold for cumulative contributions is $25,000, down from $50,000. -db
Sacramento Bee
May 10, 2010
By Jim Sanders
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation to lower the monetary threshold at which state [...]
A Democratic Party leader from Astoria, Oregon contends that county commissioners convened serial private meetings conducted in pairs to avoid the three-person quorum, undermining the state’s open meetings law. -db
The Daily Astorian
Letter to Editor
May 7, 2010
By Larry Taylor
Clatsop County Democrats voted to seek passage of legislation in Oregon to end the circumvention of the state’s [...]
According to a report from the EPA Inspector General, the EPA circumvented the Freedom of Information Act by not keeping records and marking unclassified records as confidential. The EPA blocked efforts of a New Mexico group investigating hazardous landfills and Albuquerque’s groundwater. -db
Secrecy News
Federation of American Scientists
May 5, 2010
By Steven Aftergood
Officials of the Environmental Protection [...]
After saying they had no records pertaining to Sarah Palin’s contract for a speech at a fundraising event, officials at California State University Stanislaus copped to possessing “800 to 900″ documents. -db
California Watch
May 5, 2010
By Lance Williams
Is the open government ruckus over Sarah Palin’s speaking fee in Turlock sputtering toward a conclusion?
Terry Francke of Californians [...]
Californians Aware has sent a letter to Westminster claiming that the City Council took action on an item outside of public meetings and without proper public notice. -db
PUBLICCEO.com
Opinion
May 6, 2010
By Chris Prevatt
On Monday, May 3, 2010, Richard McKee acting on behalf of Californians Aware submitted a letter to the city of Westminster demanding that they [...]
The Center for Investigative Reporting has posted records obtained through open government laws to show how each state spent the $30 million allocated since 9/11. The easily accessible package includes analyses of how states wasted money including audits and investigations of the abuses. -db
Center for Investigative Reporting
May 3, 2010
By G.W. Schulz
Earlier this year, the Center [...]
After a nationwide analysis of government websites, the Sunshine Review awarded 57 state and local governments and their agencies top scores for transparency. -db
Sunshine Review
Press Release
April 29, 2010
The best state and local government websites in America for transparency today received a “Sunny Award” from Sunshine Review.
Two California counties were among those winning recognition. The [...]
With new search avenues, journalists will have greater ability to search public records, but some public agencies across the country claim ownership rights to the records and are reluctant to make records available and even one state, Oklahoma, has raised millions in revenue from selling data. -db
Citizen Media Law Project
Analysis
April 28, 2010
By Helen Fu
In March, [...]
A vice president of Californians Aware has filed a lawsuit against the Manhattan Beach City Council for failing to property inform the public of its intent to make a settlement agreement with its former city manager that included a significant severance package. -db
The Beach Reporter
April 28, 2010
By Carley Dryden
A longtime activist for open government has [...]
The Solvang City Council doesn’t want to burden citizens with the paperwork required if the economic-development committee is governed by the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, so is considering forming the committee with only two council members. -db
Santa Ynez Valley News
April 28, 2010
By Dave Bemis
The Solvang City Council hit a speed bump Monday night [...]
The Patterson City Council posted a closed session as “City Manager Evaluation” but ended up firing him, raising the question of whether the session was conducted in compliance with California’s public meeting law. -db
Patterson Irrigator
Apr 28, 2010
By Amanda Matthews
The Patterson City Council might have violated the Ralph M. Brown Act, a public meeting law, when [...]
The Westwood Unified School district has demanded that Westwood Charter School take immediate steps to correct alleged violations of California law and to provide an extensive list of documents concerning management, the budget, personnel, and student progress. -db
Lassen County Times
April 27, 2010
Westwood Charter School must provide all requested documents, take steps to cure and [...]
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez cut off speakers at a public meeting who specifically criticized council members raising questions about whether that conduct violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. General Counsel Terry Franke of Californians Aware said that a federal judge ruled that California law was intended to protect robust expression [...]
A former doctor lost his lawsuit against the Medical Board of California for publishing information about his case after he agreed to surrender his license to practice medicine. The district Court of Appeal ruled that the board complied with California law in releasing information about a malpractice judgment against him in Orange County and the [...]
A Fish and Game warden arrested a journalist for videotaping a meeting of a state agency created to protect the ocean from pollution and development. -db
North Coast
April 25, 2010
By John Lewallen
Independent video journalist David Gurney has a powerful sense of duty: to create a video record of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI), and [...]
A watchdog group has requested that the District Attorney release to the public the full report on their investigation in the case of the shooting of Luis Gutierrez. The group specifically wants to know if a sheriff deputy put a gun to a nine-year-old girl’s head during the incident. -db
Yolo Judicial Watch
Commentary
April 24, 2010
By David [...]
A Los Angeles citizen has claimed that the city council passed electricity rate hikes without 72 hours notice required under the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. -db
LA Weekly
April 23, 2010
By Dennis Romero
Longtime City Council gadfly Joyce Dillard has sent letters to council president Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich alleging that the city [...]
A team of journalists on the staff of Marin’s Independent Journal won first place for Freedom of Information reporting in the 2009 California Newsaper Publisher Association contest. The staff members won for their work in getting the county to release payroll details that shed light on budget problems. -db
Marin Independent Journal
April 20, 2010
By Brad Breithaupt
WINNING [...]
A mine inspector’s notes about the Massey Energy mine in West Virginia showed that the ventilation system was not working to keep deadly gases and coal dust from rising to explosive levels, but these notes were not made public until after the explosion that killed 29 miners. -db
The Huffington Post
April 14, 2010
By Dan Froomkin
Back in [...]
The Sacramento Bee and the First Amendment Coalition have filed a lawsuit to force the Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System to release the names of all its retirees with pensions of over $100,000. -db
The Sacramento Bee
April 16, 2010
By Robert Lewis
The Sacramento Bee and the First Amendment Coalition on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior [...]
The Vallejo City Unified School District must conduct a revote on a decision to sell or lease an unused middle school because they failed to allow the public to speak before the decision. -db
Vallejo Times-Herald
April 18, 2010
By Shauntel Lowe
Vallejo school district officials are throwing out a recent vote to sell or lease Springstowne Middle [...]
A concerned Berkeley resident writes that the meeting this week on the city’s plan for Bus Rapid Transit should be held at a venue that accommodates the throngs that intend to show up to express their opinions on the plan. -db
The Berkeley Daily Planet
Commentary
April 15, 2010
By Dean Metzger
The city council has said it will hold a [...]
The Newport Beach City Council is holding a second hearing about a park access road following a claim that an earlier vote was taken without public disclosure of key documents. The Costa Mesa City Council denied that forming a subcommittee on the purchase of fairgrounds in closed session was a violation of the Brown Act. -db [...]
Students from California State University Stanislaus have discovered shredded documents in the garbage concerning an upcoming speaking engagement by Sarah Palin. The university had denied that any documents existed on the Palin visit. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
April 14, 2010
By Wyatt Buchanan
SACRAMENTO – Students at Cal State Stanislaus discovered evidence that documents related to an upcoming speaking [...]
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