Monday, 25 February 2008 00:49

The Brown Act

slide12.pngIf you are a member of the community who attends county or city meetings, you may have heard public officials make references to the “Brown Act.”  For those of us who aren’t versed in the California Legal Code, the Brown Act, officially known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, was originally a 686 word statute that was enacted in 1953 by the California State Legislature in order to ensure public access to meetings and information. The Brown Act was created in response to complaints from members of the public and press that elected officials were denying them information by having secret meetings and workshops.

A 1953 grand jury report on the practice of prohibiting the press from attending closed session meetings at the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors aptly summarizes the theory of the act, stating, “The business of public bodies is public business, and they should meet in the open. The best way to keep government close to the people is to make knowledge of governmental activities available to the people." The Brown Act has been added on to substantially since 1953, and now includes provisions for many aspects of governmental congregation, from electronic communications to public comment.

Recent additions to the act include regulations for tele-conferencing, emergency meetings and American’s with Disabilities Act compliancy.  As far as Amador County goes, in 2004, the grand jury investigated complaints that members of the Plymouth City Council were in violation of the act by discussing non-agendized issues in closed session meetings. The city responded by revising their policy on how items make it on the agenda. For more information on the provisions of the Brown Act, visit one of the websites on your screen: http://www.brownact.org/ or http://www.ag.ca.gov/publications/2003_Intro_BrownAct.pdf