By Greg Nelson

Assistant City Attorney Valerie Flores dropped a bombshell at last week’s Neighborhood Council Review Commission meeting.

Her office is now revisiting the long-standing position of the City Attorney’s office that the state’s open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, applies to Neighborhood Councils.

As long as the Brown Act applies, it also means that Neighborhood Councils must abide by the state’s Political Reform Act and the Public Records Act.

That’s huge!

The City Charter and the Plan for a Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils envisioned Neighborhood Councils being as independent as possible from City Hall.

When the City Attorney determined that Neighborhood Councils came under the Brown Act and the two other laws, the system got turned upside down.  

Tons of time was spent teaching the Neighborhood Councils about the laws and how to deal with them.  

And people who didn’t understand the laws, and who wanted to attack Neighborhood Councils or people in them, filed complaint after complaint.  Adding to the problem is that the city doesn’t enforce state laws, and the state doesn’t come close to having the time and resources to worry about alleged problems with advisory groups.  They have their hands full with allegedly corrupt elected officials.  

When Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas introduced a bill last year that would exempt Neighborhood Councils from a small part of the Brown Act, Neighborhood Council leaders were split.   Many thought that the bill should propose a complete exemption.  The bill went nowhere.

Because the Brown Act was designed well before there were Neighborhood Councils and the Internet, it has caused problems for Neighborhood Councils:  

1.  Neighborhood Council leaders are discouraged from participating in Internet discussion groups and bulletin boards.  The law makes it illegal for a majority of a board or committee from discussing issues outside of formal meetings.  Yet, it is the Internet that has given energy to participatory democracy throughout the world by making it easier for more people to share thoughts about neighborhood and governmental issues.

2.  As city entities under the Brown Act, Neighborhood Council representatives cannot talk to or e-mail a majority of the City Council, its committees, or commissions on issues that affect them.  Yet lobbyists or developers who may have an opposite point of view can have all the private discussions they wish.  It isn’t a level playing field.

3.  The law defines retreats as meetings, and it requires that all meetings be held within the jurisdiction of the Neighborhood Council.  Successful retreats are usually held outside the traditional meeting place.

4.  In City Hall, the preparatory work is done by departmental staff and becomes public once it is sent to the City Council for hearings.  But Neighborhood Councils don’t have staff.  So largely, their work must be done in meetings governed by the Brown Act.  Imagine if city departmental staff had to function this way.  

There are several solutions.  State legislation could exempt Neighborhood Councils partially or completely from the Brown Act.  The City Charter could be changed to redesign the Neighborhood Councils as nonprofit or private corporations.  The City Attorney’s possible new approach may permit the City Council to determine that the state laws don’t apply.

Whether or not these options are pursued, the city should develop its own “sunshine law.”  It would guarantee the basic principles of transparency – open and fair meetings, advance notice, and a chance for everyone to speak.  

The local law should allow the Neighborhood Councils to discuss problems that are brought to them by the public, and even take positions on urgent issues if a super-majority agrees.  

It could contain simple ethics and conflict of interest rules.

And the new law could include a means through which there could be real enforcement without involving criminal penalties.

If DONE doesn’t decide to assemble a working group of Neighborhood Council leaders and city staff to design such a “sunshine law”, the Neighborhood Councils could take the initiative themselves.  I’ll help. (Greg Nelson participated in the birth and development of the LA Neighborhood Council system and most recently served as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Nelson now provides news and issues analysis to CityWatch.) _