Tulare County supervisors likely to evade suit on alleged open meeting violations

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 [...]

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 [...]

News organizations want open hearings over West Virginia mine deaths

Eight news organizations and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has asked the Mine Safety and Health Administration to conduct open hearings about the mne disaster that killed 25 miners in early this month. -db

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Press Release
April 27, 2010
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and eight [...]

Southern California: Long running ad hoc committees trample open government

With 14 ad hoc committees, one four years old, the Highland City Council is needlessly conducting vast amounts of the people’s business behind closed doors, says an editorial in the Highland Community News. -DB
Highland Community News
Editorial
December 17, 2009
Ad hoc committees can serve a very useful purpose.

Operating out of public view, they can sometimes work out [...]