Driver’s union claims transit authority violated California open meeting law

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 [...]

Southern California: Fontana school board president justifies silencing citizens during public comments

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 [...]

Tulare County: Editorial says judge’s ruling blow to open meetings

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 [...]

Los Angeles County investigates improper release of information on child death and neglect cases

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 [...]

California school district adopts changes to comply with open meeting law

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 [...]

Texas cities blocked from joining suit against state’s open meetings law

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 [...]

Public seeks access to Oceano Dunes pollution reduction committees

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, [...]

Alameda: Councilwoman asks DA to close investigation of alleged open meeting violation

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 [...]

Southern California: Alleged Brown Act violation by school district during teleconferencing

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 [...]

Tulare supervisors admit open meeting law violations in holding lunch meetings

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 [...]

Southern California: Azusa quarry challenged on open meetings issue

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 [...]

Stockton: Grand Jury finds three college board trustees in violation of California’s open meetings law

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 [...]

Northern California: College trustee accuses professors of open meeting violation

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 [...]

Sunnyvale: Grand Jury claimed city council violated state open meeting law

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 [...]

Tulare: Suit brought over alleged violations of open meeting and public records laws

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 [...]

Lodi: School district interviews said to violate district’s own open meeting bylaw

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 [...]

Brown Act: Editorial opposes change to open meeting law

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 [...]

Fontana: Mayor concerned about outbursts during meetings

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 [...]

Del Mar: Parents want school board to fulfill campaign promises for open government and full transparency

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, [...]

Open government a campaign issue in California county

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 [...]

New study questions premise that government secrecy promotes better decision-making

A new report challenges the view that government deliberations must be private to achieve candor. The authors of the report say that secrecy actually discourages dissenters from voicing their concerns. -db

Secrecy News
May 20, 2010
By Steven Aftergood

When the Supreme Court ordered the Nixon White House to comply with a subpoena for the Watergate tapes in the [...]

Amador County: Flury of e-mails leads to allegations of open meeting violation

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 [...]

Schwarzenegger wants to halt reimbursement to local governments for open government costs

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 [...]

Taft City Council under fire for alleged violation of open meeting act

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 [...]

San Jose City College community questions whether Board of Trustees violated state’s open meeting law

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 [...]

Los Angeles County: Resident files suit claiming millions spent illegally

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: Journalist arrested for attempting to videotape public meeting on marine life protection

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 [...]

L.A. City Council watchdog alleges electricity rates boosted without legal notice

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 [...]

Berkeley city council faces test on Sunshine Ordinance

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 [...]

Open meeting controversies trouble two Orange County city councils

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 [...]

Santa Ana mayor pro tem accused of violating Califrornia’s open meetings law

A writer for TheLiberalOC.com criticizes the Santa Ana mayor pro tem for not affording all citizens equal treatment during the public comment segment of the council meetings. -db

TheLiberalOC.com
Opinion
April 13, 2010
By Chris Prevatt

At the April 5, 2010 meeting of the Santa Ana City Council, Mayor Miguel Pulido missed the meeting. The gavel fell into the hands [...]

Tulare County: Newspaper and association join in lawsuit to stop county supervisors’ lunch meetings

To ensure that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors complies with California’s open meeting law, the local newspaper and the California Newspaper Pulbishers Association are joining a lawsuit to block the board from holding regular closed lunch meetings paid by the taxpayers and often attended by a board quorum. -db
Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register
April 12, 2010
By Valerie [...]

Central Valley: Open meeting violations prompt successful recall petition drive

Citizens for Better City Government have collected over 1,000 signatures in the first step to recall three Hughson City Council members. The Civil Grand Jury had found the three in violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meetings law. -db
The Turlock Journal
March 30, 2010
By Maegan Martens
Three months after the Civil Grand Jury found three Hughson [...]

Tulare County: Supervisors missing the point in efforts to justify private lunch meetings

A Visalia Times-Delta  editorial argues that the Tulare County supervisors are violating the state’s open meeting law by convening as often as three times a week for lunch not open to the public. The supervisors are writing a policy to justify the practice which they claim is for the purpose of team building rather than [...]

Calaveras County: Citizens claim open meeting violation in silencing speaker

Residents of Calaveras County are rising to the defense of a fellow citizen whom the Board of Supervisors shut down while he was delivering a diatribe against a supervisor. They say the state’s open government law does not permit shutting down speakers just for critical comments. -db
Calaveras Enterprise
March 25, 2010
By Claudette Langley
A Calaveras County Board of [...]

Capistrano schools held in violation of California’s open meeting laws

A superior court judge ruled that the Capistrano Unified School District violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, in not properly preparing the agenda on a closed door meeting on a personnel matter. In recent years the board had been reprimanded five times for violating the Brown Act, and a board with all [...]

Atherton: Open government advocate persists in suit after rebuff by district attorney

An open government advocate is suing the Sequoia Union High School District to force them to decide on a personnel policy item in open meeting. The local district attorney sided with the school district in holding that  the vote behind closed doors was legal. -db
The Almanac
March 17, 2010
By Dave Boyce
The district attorney will not [...]

Tulare County: Supervisors challenged in court test on open government compliance

An open government advocate is suing the Tulare County Board of Supervisors to prevent them from holding luncheons with a voting majority present. -db

Visalia Times-Delta
March 12, 2010
By Valerie Gibbons

An open-meeting watchdog has filed a lawsuit against the Tulare County Board of Supervisors in an effort to end supervisors’ practice of sharing meals when a voting [...]

Bay Area transit district to webcast its board meetings

The Bay Area Rapid Transit voted to post its board meetings live on the web. The decision was made after criticism that the district was not responsive to the community following a BART policeman’s fatal shooting of an unarmed passenger. -db

San Jose Mercury News
March 12, 2010
By Denis Cuff

More than a year after an uproar over [...]

Transparency: S.F. mayor wants texting banned during city meetings

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants a ban on text messaging during meetings of the Board of Supervisors and city commissions to limit the influence of  lobbyists texting city officials and to keep the city government more transparent. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
March 10, 2010
By Heather Knight
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to push the off button [...]

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