The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has quietly abandoned the practice of secretly signing all members’ names to letters sent to the Legislature and/or Governor expressing support or opposition to particular legislation. As can be seen in items 11 and 22 on...
FREE SPEECH: L.A. Supervisors’ Names Can’t Stop Bill Protecting Speech at Public Meetings Despite a last minute Chicken Little chorus signed personally by all Los Angeles County Supervisors, a bill backed by Californians Aware and others to stop local bodies from...
The California Senate is poised, as early as this coming Monday, to vote on a bill that would end abuses and denials of citizens’ right to be heard at local government meetings. AB 194 by Assembly Member Nora Campos (D-San Jose) leaves councils, boards and commissions...
The proponents of Proposition 54—the California Legislature Transparency Act, which passed with 65 percent voter approval last November±—have delivered a letter to Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon opposing SCR-38, his bill that seeks to create house rules...
Californians Aware has announced its opposition to Assembly Bill 1455 by Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra (D-San Fernando), which would exempt from public disclosure under the California Public Records Act all records of what a local public agency knew, said and did in...
The passage of Proposition 54 and both what it changes and why are well described here—with all the “woulds” to now be read as “wills”. Although the measure deals with legislative rules and procedures that never capture most Californians’ attention, the result will be...
A bill signed by Governor Brown requires local government bodies to link their meeting agendas to their websites’ home pages. AB 2257 by Assembly Member Brian Maienschein, signed by Governor Jerry Brown last Thursday, will beginning in January 2019 require local...
Governor Brown yesterday (August 22) signed into law, effective January 1, an amendment to the Ralph M. Brown Act requiring local government bodies, prior to voting in open session to approve new pay or benefit levels for their agency’s executives, to “orally report a...
A Brown Act lawsuit threat by Californians Aware against the City of Manhattan Beach, although withdrawn based on new information from City Attorney Quinn Barrow, has led to a policy of more complete disclosures on meeting agendas about what facts and circumstances...
