Law Firm Sees Silver Lining in A.G. Opinion on Brown Act

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Feb 7, 2012 | Awareness Area: Government, Legal Issue: Open Meetings | 0 |

One of the leading law firms providing counsel to local public agencies sees a recent Attorney General’s opinion narrowing the scope of what may be discussed in closed sessions on real estate negotiations as a marketing opportunity. “While this limitation may appear to place additional constraints on local agencies,” the legal alert to clients and others concludes, “we believe most negotiation terms are, in fact, tied to price and terms of payment, and thus carefully drafted closed session memos and negotiation strategies will protect your agency from legal challenge. For more information on the real estate negotiations exception and how it may affect your agency, please contact your Best Best & Krieger attorney, Sonia Carvalho, Grover Trask, or an attorney in the firm’s Municipal, Special Districts or School Law practice groups.”

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers. Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution. Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.

Search

Help our cause

Help Our Cause

$ Donation Amount:

Personal Info

First Name *

Last Name

Email Address *

Credit Card Info

This is a secure SSL encrypted payment.

Card Number *

CVC *

Cardholder Name *

Expiration *

Billing Details

Country *

Address 1 *

Address 2

City *

State *

Zip / Postal Code *

Donation Total: $25

SOS to All Attorneys

CalAware Members can use our Solicitation of Service (SOS) form to describe their legal problem and request an attorney’s response regarding representation or other services, and have that request sent in an individual email to every attorney in the Directory, setting a deadline for response.

Attorney SOS