Politics & Government

State Allows Cities To Become Less Transparent

While the state has decided to suspend Brown Act mandates, South Pasadena City Attorney Richard Adams says council will keep their residents notified as they've always done.

Cities now have the option of becoming a lot more secretive—if they choose.

Last month, the state legislature suspended the Brown Act mandate that local jurisdictions—cities, counties, school districts, water districts and special districts—post meeting agendas for the public. The suspension also allows local jurisdictions to forgo reporting to the public about actions taken during closed-session meetings.

How many California municipalities will choose to abandon the transparency mandates is unknown, but locally the plans are to continue serving the residents.

Find out what's happening in South Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Nothing to Change in South Pas

South Pasadena City Attorney Richard Adams says council will keep its residents notified as they've always done.  

Find out what's happening in South Pasadenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"In the interest of transparency and what people are used to, it is our recommendation to continue to follow the Brown Act—suspended or not,” Adams told Patch. 

South Pasadena City Councilthe Brown Act last year after a resident questioned the term "Performance Evaluation of City Manager" being used multiple times as a closed-session agenda item.

The DA no factual findings with regard to the alleged conduct because there was no independent source of evidence. 

Pinching Pennies

How the state came to the decision of suspending the Brown Act mandates boiled down to one thing: money. In California, mandates placed on local jurisdictions by Sacramento must be funded by the state. In the case of the Brown Act mandates, the state was subsidizing nearly $100 million a year by some estimates.

So in an effort to cut expenditures, the state decided to suspend the mandates.

According to watchdog Californians Aware—a group that tries to foster improvement of, compliance with and public understanding and use of, public forum law, which deals with what rights citizens have to know what is going in in government—local jurisdictions learned how to milk the system.

They “could get a windfall of cash for doing something they had always done: preparing and posting meeting agendas for their governing and other bodies as mandated by Brown Act amendments passed in 1986 -- but as, in fact, routinely done anyway since time immemorial to satisfy practical and political expectations,” the nonprofit reported Friday.

The issue was just now getting the attention of local jurisdictions and there is still sorting out to do. Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has introduced a Senate Constitutional Amendment (SCA 7) that would ask California voters if they want the transparency. The amendment is stalled in committee.

"To anyone who's been watching this issue for a while, the real news is not that the Brown Act can be so dependent on the state budget," said Terry Franke, a California media law expert who is General Counsel, Californians Aware. "The real news is that 17 people in Sacramento are denying the public the chance to say 'Enough'."

The Timeline

In the meantime, the suspension could last through 2015, so it appears the public will need to demand transparency from its representatives if it wants to stay informed.

McAllister could only offer so much. "Regardless of what the state has done, I doubt we'll water down our reporting/noticing at all as it is the council's policy to be as transparent as possible.”

The League of California Cities is expected to release an official statement regarding the Brown Act suspesion, but the organization’s Communications Director Eva Spiegel said for now the suggestion to cities is  to stick with the status quo.

“The League has been very involved with the Brown Act,” she said. “We have always encouraged transparency.”

Related: Watchdog Group Launches Petition to Protect Brown Act


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