Did the City Violate the Brown Act at the Last HCOC Meeting?

Did the City of Paso Robles violate the Brown Act at their last Housing Constraints and Opportunities (HCOC) meeting? Specifically, did they violate the Brown Act by adding an agenda discussion item to the meeting during the meeting without noticing the public ahead of time? The meeting minutes for that November 14, 2024 meeting can be found here. Notice item “6. Membership” in section “E. Discussion Items”. Minutes for “Item 6. Membership” read,

“This item was not on the original agenda and was added during the meeting.

Committee discussed current membership roles, potential appointments, mentorship opportunities, and clarify responsibilities. Staff may be directed to prepare a summary report for City Council.”

What is the Brown Act?

According to Rob Bonta, the Attorney General for the State of California Department of Justice (https://oag.ca.gov/open-meetings):
”The Ralph M. Brown Act is a “public access law” that ensures the public’s right to attend the meetings of public agencies, facilitates public participation in all phases of local government decision-making, and curbs misuse of the democratic process by secret legislation. Under the Act, all meetings of local legislative bodies are open and public, and all persons are permitted to attend the meetings. Statutory exceptions authorizing closed sessions are construed narrowly, and the Brown Act “sunshine law” is construed liberally in favor of openness in conducting public business. (98 Cal.Ops.Atty.Gen. 41 (2015).)”

Part of the Brown Act includes requirements on meeting agendas and notices. For the HCOC meeting, an agenda was sent out (noticed) per the requirement of 72 hours prior notice for regular meetings. The meeting was not announced as a special or emergency meeting. As an ‘emergency meeting’ there are exceptions that would allow an agenda be changed (within the 72hrs or at the meeting) should an actual emergency exist. Read more about that here: https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/government-code/gov-sect-54954-2/. Per information provided in the meeting’s original agenda and/or the meeting minutes, these exceptions do not apply to this HCOC meeting.

So then—Did the City Violate the Brown Act at the November 14, 2024 Housing Constraints and Opportunities (HCOC) Meeting?

I’m not an attorney or legal expert, but I have to conclude ‘YES’, the city did violate the Brown Act. The agenda was changed at the meeting without any notice or explanation and violated the noticing rules defined in the Brown Act. It’s not that complicated.

I was at this meeting, but left just prior to the end, at approximately 4:30pm, as the discussion for the last item on the original agenda was concluding. There was no notice at that point that an item would be added to the agenda. In fact, I had submitted written public comment for this meeting and also spoke during General Public Comment. Coincidentally, my verbal public comment questioned the current membership policy—related to the topic that the committee added later to the agenda once I had left the room. Did the city wait until I had left the room to add this to the agenda?

What is especially disappointing is that there were 2 council members and numerous city staff employees at this meeting—and I have no indication that any of them questioned whether they were violating the Brown Act by adding an item to the meeting agenda during the meeting. Supposedly, all are trained in the specifics of the Brown Act. In addition, these HCOC Meeting Minutes have been subsequently approved by both the Planning Commission and the City Council—and I don’t recall a single member of those bodies looking at Item 6 of the minutes and questioning whether this addition to the agenda violated the Brown Act.

There is more to this story, and I will be writing about that in a subsequent post. It will describe I had to do to get a public copy of these minutes via the city’s public records request process. Check back for that.