CLEARLAKE — Lake County Counsel Anita Grant presented an overview of the Ralph M. Brown Act during a public meeting Saturday at Clearlake City Hall. The purpose of the Brown Act, according to Grant, is to ensure public access and transparency of legislative agencies” actions.
“If you come away understanding the basics, that”s the most important thing,” Grant said. “The second most important thing is to understand when you need to ask a question.”
The basic rule of the Brown Act, Grant said, is that all meetings of a legislative agency shall be open and public and all people shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative agency.
Meetings must be publicized beforehand with a posted agenda. Grant said the agenda of a regular meeting must be posted at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. A special meeting must be posted at least 24 hours in advance and an emergency meeting must be posted with at least one hour”s notice. “The point of the agenda is always to alert the public of what is to be discussed,” Grant said. She added, the agenda must also include if the item will only be discussed or if it will be subject to an action.
Items that can be discussed in closed session must be very narrowly interpreted, according to Grant. She used the term “safe harbor,” referring to allowable purposes specified within the Brown Act itself. These “safe-harbor” or “fill-in-the-blank” descriptions as Grant also referred to them, enable a legislative body to be in “substantial compliance” when justifying a closed-session item. Some of these allowable purposes include discussion of legislation; purchase, sale, exchange or lease of property by or for the local agency; appointment, employment, evaluation of job performance, discipline and dismissal of a public employee and labor negotiations. If the Brown Act does not grant specific authority for an item to be discussed in closed session, it must be discussed in public, even if it is sensitive or controversial.
Grant added, any actions taken in closed session must be disclosed at that meeting. Only the entire body can agree to divulge confidential information acquired while it was in closed session; an individual member of that body cannot.
The public has the right to address the board on matters that appear on the agenda, as well as to raise concerns about matters that are not on the agenda but are within that board”s jurisdiction. The board cannot take action upon concerns that are not on the agenda but the matter can be referred for scheduling to be addressed at another time.
The Brown Act also places restrictions upon conduct by members of the public. A person who is willfully disruptive can be removed from the meeting. If that does not work to restore order to the proceedings, the agency can order the room to be cleared and continue its meeting except that the media must be allowed to remain.
According to Grant, a majority of members of a legislative body may attend social occasions, conferences and community forums without their presence being a “meeting” of that legislative body. But the members of that body may not discuss business during these public functions. Grant also cautioned against members of a legislative body committing violations of the Brown Act by having serial conversations with each other about how they intend to act upon a matter that is on the agenda.
Saturday”s presentation was held as a joint workshop of the Clearlake City Council, the Clearlake Redevelopment Agency, the Redevelopment Agency Advisory Committee and the Clearlake Planning Commission. The presentation was recorded for broadcast on Public, Education and Government Channel TV8. Archived videos can also be viewed online at http://laketv8.pegcentral.com/index.php.
