ACLU of Santa Cruz County, CA

 [Brown Act Policy Declaration]  “Public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted  openly...The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”

Just as the Obama administration is promoting open government and citizen involvement
through its commitment to transparency and accountability in every federal department and
agency, our Chapter’s Open Government working group is looking into just how well our
county’s legislative bodies (four city councils plus the county board of supervisors) are keeping
the public informed and involved in their decision making processes.

The Brown Act contains California’s minimum standards for how local governments must balance the rights of the public to participate in the meetings and legislative deliberations of public bodies on the one hand, and the need for an efficient and orderly process of debate and information gathering on the other. For example, the Act’s provisions on legislative agendas require that citizens be given at least 72 hours advance notice, along with brief descriptions, of the agenda. The Act also provides for citizens’ rights to make comments before or during the legislative body’s consideration of each agenda item.

Our working group is considering proposals to improve citizen participation, including proposals
made by such reform organizations as CalAware and the California First Amendment Coalition, and is examining “Sunshine” ordinances passed by several other California local governments, including San Jose, San Francisco, Berkeley and Benicia. Under consideration are evaluating the feasibility of local governments being required to provide more than 72 hours advance notice in the case of particularly significant legislative proposals, identifying special legislative circumstances which should require public hearings, and evaluating what changes should be made in the time limits imposed on citizens for addressing local legislative bodies. We’ll report our work in future newsletters as well as here on our website.