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Monday, 25 February 2008 |
 If 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
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 09 March 2008 )
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