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Transparency? I’ve got Your Transparency Right Here |
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Empowerment Report
By Greg Nelson
Government likes to treat the public as if they were mushrooms: they keep us in the dark and feed us fertilizer.
Despite the attempts by the neighborhood council system to open the
doors of City Hall to the public, and the goal of the state’s Brown Act
to force governments to do the public’s business in public, there have
been only modest improvements in the culture of government from the
days when the “good old boys” decided everything privately before votes
were cast.
The City Council so regularly violates the Brown Act that I often wish there were a bounty available to snitchers.
A fundamental provision of the Act is that a majority of Council members, or their staff, on the City Council or any of its committees cannot privately discuss matters coming before them.
Since most City Council committees are comprised of three members, it just takes two of them to have a conversation and violate the law.
Violations are fairly easy to sniff out. A committee takes up an item, some of the members briefly share their thoughts, there is little real discussion, some members of the public speak but are ignored, and a vote is taken. Next item, please!
There are countless times when the Department of Water and Power, Harbor, or Airports commissions approve complex multi-million dollar contracts with little or no meaningful discussion. How is that possible unless a majority of the commission members have already come together on how they will vote?
The big clue here is when the lobbyists never speak publicly. They don’t have to because the outcome has all been pre-determined.
Involving the public in developing proposals and laws just isn’t an important goal of public officials.
However, neighborhood councils have a powerful tool available to them that they rarely use. In fact, I can’t think of a single time when they have used it, although the media makes headlines with the tool all the time.
It’s the state’s Public Records Act. This law could easily be called the Transparency Act.
If you want to examine documents that government uses to make decisions, asking for them is easier than you can imagine.
The California First Amendment Coalition maintains a website that tells you everything you will ever need to know about your rights and how to employ them.
That’s great because you can be assured that City Hall won’t give you this information. Its website is www.cfac.org .
The Coalition has developed a letter that you can use to request information. But you don’t need to be this formal. If government receives a verbal request for documents, even if you never mention the words “Public Records Act,” it must treat it as it would a formal request.
In reality, some agencies may ask you to make the request in writing because they would like you to have the information, but they want to be “forced” to provide it to you as a mean of self-protection from those who aren’t going to be happy that you’re nosing around.
The Coalition posts the questions it has received and the answers it has given. The list is extensive.
Although it may be a fruitless effort, neighborhood councils could ask the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to develop a summary of how to use the Act, post it on its website, and possible include it as part of its training program or the upcoming Congress of Neighborhoods.
The staff, officers, board of directors, and fellows of the Coalition include many prominent local people who might be happy to share their knowledge. Click here .
And for those who are interested in shaping a local Sunshine Law to replace or enhance the Brown Act and Public Records Act, the Coalition’s website include sunshine laws from other cities.
Thankfully, the Coalition is there to help.
(Greg Nelson participated in the birth and development of the LA Neighborhood Council system and served as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Nelson now provides news and issues analysis to CityWatch.) You can reach Greg Nelson at
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CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 76
Published: Sept 19, 2008
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