[Occupymendocino] open meeting law resolution - Brown Act information

Sun Jul 29 09:40:22 PDT 2012

>From the mcn listserve

http://www.pe.com/local-news/politics/politics-headlines-index/20120711-local-government-agenda-notice-requirements-suspended.ece

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jessie VanSant <vjessielee at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Subject: Fwd: [MCN-Discussion]- open meeting law resolution
To: JessieGmail VanSant <vjessielee at gmail.com>

Begin forwarded message:

*From: *David Gurney <jugglestone at gmail.com>
*Date: *July 25, 2012 8:57:44 AM PDT
*To: *discussion at lists.mcn.org
*Subject: **Re: [MCN-Discussion]- open meeting law resolution*
*Reply-To: *discussion at lists.mcn.org

The Ralph M. Brown Act is a law, passed by the California Legislature in
1953, requiring that local governments conduct meetings openly, accessibly
(with due notice) and guarantees public participation at meetings. As part
of his budget, passed by the Legislature, our current Gov. Brown suspended
parts of the Brown Act as a cost saving measure - the costs being the
preparation and publishing of meeting agendas and closed session results,
since these costs could be billed back to the state.  Many local
governments either did not bill the state for reimbursement, or were never
reimbursed anyway, so the matter is moot.  It's another whittling away at
our democracy, that most won't care about or notice.

"Last month, the Legislature agreed to suspend for three years a
requirement that local governments post agendas 72 hours in advance of
meetings. Also suspended was the requirement to make public actions taken
by government agencies in closed sessions, which are permitted in
discussions of lawsuits and some personnel matters." -
Ramonoa Sentinel -
http://www.ramonasentinel.com/2012/07/24/supervisors-poised-to-affirm-allegiance-to-open-meeting-law/

Some local governments are volutarily complying with the Brown Act anyway,
as the above article indicates.

In our recent lawsuit against the MLPA, we attmpted to hold the
"public-private partnership" accountable under the Bagley-Keene Open
Meeting  Act - which is almost identical to the Ralph M. Brown Act - except
it applies to California State government meetings, instead of local city
councils, board of supervisors, etc.

Unfortunately, the MLPAI and their high powered attorneys were able to
wiggle out of responsibility to abide by open meeting law, on legal
technicalities, although they falsely claimed that their process was "open
and transparent."  An absolute lie, as it turns out.  They claimed after
the fact that not only was the 45-member staff of the MLPA "Initiative" not
any sort of legal group or entity, but the whole "North Coast Regional
Stakeholder Group" was not "officially a state body" since it hadn't been
created by an act of the Legislature.  Instead the group was allegedly
appointed by private interests, and so not subject to state law, according
to the crooks of the MLPAI.  This despite the fact that the NCRSG's
recommendations were almost universally supported by all local and state
agencies, councils, boards and commissions, and their plan is to be adopted
into state law in the very near future.

It's all part of your democracy vanishing, little by little, so that before
long the public won't even have a timed 2-3 minutes with which to bore our
policy makers.

see:  "Judge Strikes Down MLPAI Lawsuit" - http://noyonews.net/?p=6691

and:  "Bagley-Keene and the MLPAI Two Years Later" -
http://noyonews.net/?p=5712

and:  "A Sad Day for Democracy" -  http://noyonews.net/?p=5491

DG

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 7:45 AM, Christopher Cisper <c4cisper at gmail.com
>wrote:

So is the Brown Act a law or a suggestion because my observations in

regards to some government agencies appear to support the later.  If it is

a law, isn't putting up a vote to support it just a waste of time? A

political gesture?

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 7:21 AM, Dan Hamburg <vote at pacific.net> wrote:

I'll check on your question.

The Board will have a resolution at its next meeting affirming our

continuing intention to follow all Brown Act provisions.

-----Original Message-----

From: discussion-bounces at lists.mcn.org

[mailto:discussion-bounces at lists.mcn.org] On Behalf Of John Dickerson

Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 3:14 PM

To: discussion at lists.mcn.org

Subject: Re: [MCN-Discussion]- open meeting law resolution

I've seen some articles about another dimension of this issue I hadn't

thought of. It appears some local governments have been charging the

state

an amazing amount of money to comply with Brown Act requirements such as

posting agendas under the notion that the state's Brown Act imposes

mandates

on local governments so the state should pay the cost.

Is that true?

-----Original Message-----

From: discussion-bounces at lists.mcn.org

[mailto:discussion-bounces at lists.mcn.org] On Behalf Of kathy

Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:39 AM

To: discussion at lists.mcn.org

Subject: [MCN-Discussion]- open meeting law resolution

http://www.ramonasentinel.com/2012/07/24/supervisors-poised-to-affirm-allegi

ance-to-open-meeting-law/

Dan (et al)

I did not see any proposed board resolution on the current agenda - I'm

trusting that you will still put forth a resolution in support of

upholding

the Brown Act?

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