The Ralph M. Brown Act is a California law that guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies. Located at California Government Code 54950 ''et seq.'', it is an act of the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislatu ...

, authored by Assemblymember Ralph M. Brown and passed in 1953. The Brown Act, originally a 686 word

statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...

that has grown substantially over the years, was enacted in response to mounting public concerns over informal, undisclosed meetings held by local elected officials. City councils, county boards, and other local government bodies were avoiding public scrutiny by holding secret "workshops" and "study sessions." The Brown Act applies to “local agencies,” meaning a county, city, whether general law or chartered, city and county, town, school district, municipal corporation, district, political subdivision, or any board, commission or agency thereof, or other local public agency. The Act has been interpreted to apply to email communication as well, leading to restrictions on the number of parties that can be copied on electronic messages. The comparable

Bagley-Keene Act The Bagley-Keene Act of 1967, officially known as the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, implements a provision of the California Constitution which declares that "the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be ...

mandates open meetings for State government agencies.

History

In 1952, the

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

published a 10-part article series titled “Your Secret Government”, where reporter Mike Harris revealed that local agencies were frequently holding secret meetings or caucuses, even though state law had long required that business should be done in public.League of California Cities
Open & Public IV: A Guide to the Ralph M. Brown Act.
2nd Edition, revised July 2010. Harris went on to draft a new state open meeting law together with Richard (Bud) Carpenter, legal counsel for the League of California Cities, and Assembly Member Ralph M. Brown agreed to carry the bill, which was signed into law by Governor

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitutio ...

in 1953. Notably, increased public notice requirements also increased local agency classified advertising spending. Public meeting notice spending was preferential for morning newspapers such as the Chronicle, which was in a bitter rivalry with William Randolph Hearst's

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

, an evening newspaper. The introduction to the Brown Act describes its purpose and intent:

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other 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 of this State do not yield their
sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating
authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''T ...
, do not give their
public servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
s 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.

The ''Sacramento Bee'' said of the act in 1952:

A law to prohibit secret meetings of official bodies, save under the most exceptional circumstances, should not be necessary. Public officers above all other persons should be imbued with the truth that their business is the public's business and they should be the last to tolerate any attempt to keep the people from being fully informed as to what is going on in official agencies. Unfortunately, however, that is not always the case. Instances are many in which officials have contrived, deliberately and shamefully, to operate in a vacuum of secrecy.

Criticisms

Supporters of the Brown Act say it still lacks enforcement (and has never had a successful prosecution), contending the law has been eroded by court decisions and government officials' efforts to block access to records. "The unfulfilled promise, I'm afraid, that 50 years has revealed, is enforcement," commented Terry Francke, of the

California First Amendment Coalition The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) is a nonprofit public interest organization committed to freedom of speech, more open and accountable government, and public participation in civic affairs. Founded in 1988, FAC's activities include "test case" ...

, on the 50th anniversary of the bill's passage in 2003.

Brown Act sections

:* Title and definitions :* Adjourned or continued meetings :* Closed sessions :* Documents at meetings are public :* Emergency situations :* Electronic communications :* Public is not required to provide their name or any information :* No action or discussion shall be undertaken on any item not on the agenda :* Notice of meetings :* Open meetings :* Penalty to deprive the public of information :* Public comment :* Public criticism allowed :* Right to recording proceedings :* Reports of closed session actions :* Special meetings :* Taxes :* Time limits for public testimony :* When it does apply :* When it does not apply :* Willfully interrupting a meeting

References

CFAC.org
- 'Ralph M. Brown Act: California Government Code Sections 54950 et seq.'{{dead link, date=February 2018

External links

full text of the Brown Act
Brown Act Pamphlet 2003
from the California Attorney General's Office
Brown Act Primer
(2006) on the website of the

* Thorough discussion in th
open government guide

- 'Ralph M. Brown Act: 1953-2003 50th Anniversary: Brown Act and Beyond'

- 'Brown Act backers say laws need teeth', Don Thompson (AP), ''Contra Costa Times'' (July 2, 2003)

- 'The Brown Act: California Codes Government Code Section 54950-54963 (August 28, 2004)
RCFP.org
- 'The Door to Open Government in California', Duffy Carolan, Esq., Selena Poon Ontiveros, Esq., The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press California statutes Freedom of information legislation in the United States Freedom of information in the United States 1953 in law 1953 in California

History

Criticisms

Brown Act sections

See also

References

External links