Task force subject to Brown Act?
Robert Lauriston
over the summer. An opinion from the Los Angeles city attorney raises
the question of whether those meetings and the private SBNDC meeting at
which the task force was selected were in violation of the Brown Act:
"The Brown Act governs the meetings of all 'legislative bodies' of
local agencies and sets forth requirements to ensure that actions and
the deliberations of public commissions, boards and councils and other
public agencies are taken openly. One of its major objectives is to
'facilitate public participation in all phases of local government
decisionmaking and to curb misuse of democratic process by secret
legislation by public bodies.'
"The Brown Act has been interpreted to mean that all of the
deliberative processes of local legislative bodies, including
discussion, debate and acquisition of information must be open and
available for public scrutiny. ...
"... The Brown Act is also applicable to 'a commission, committee,
board, or other body of a local agency, whether permanent or temporary,
decisionmaking or advisory, created by charter, ordinance, resolution,
or formal action of a legislative body.' ..."
"... if a governmental system is in place which enables or authorizes
the creation of an advisory committee to a legislative body, the
advisory committee is subject to the Brown Act. This is true regardless
of whether or not the individual committee members are appointed by a
legislative body. ..."
laura/ROC NA
forwarding the opinion from the LA City Attorney. In comparing how
various City Attorneys interpret their role in serving the
City/community, an internet search leaves one asking, does our CA view
their role as supporting the community or protecting the City
government. Perhaps this is one of the schisms, which result in the
City being out of touch with the community and quality of life issues.
Blane
Thanks for this helpful info. It seems to me that the Ashby BART task
force most certainly is subject to the Brown Act, especially since the
matters it deals with are so important to so many people. I've
personally served on Boards before, and they were required to be in
compliance with the Brown Act, and their basic functions and purposes
were sometimes of a less critical nature than the Ashby BART task
force.
Right now, I serve on the Board of Directors of EDIDA (Easy Does It
Emergency Disability Assistance) and we have to follow the Brown Act in
our meetings. Even though our monthly Board meetings only rarely have
members of the public attending, we always follow Brown Act
requirements.
It seems to me that following the Brown Act would be very good for the
Ashby BART task force, for a couple of reasons. First, it would
eliminate some of the controversy concerning the accusations that their
agenda is a closed process, which has been a major point of contention
in this whole thing from the beginning. Second, it would facilitate
the public's creative process to help come up with a solution to this
"to build or not to build" mess that is driving a wedge between so many
people in this neighborhood.
The only reason I can think of why the Ashby BART task force might
oppose compliance with the Brown Act is that their true agenda is
hidden, and they are really trying to sell the residents of South
Berkeley a bill of goods.
Blane N. Beckwith
2931 Ellis St.