Week of June 14th 2021 - Episode 3 - The Brown Act

This week I will be explaining exactly what the Brown Act is and how it applies to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to The Breakdown with Benjamin Nowain for the week of June 14, 2021.

Unfortunately, this week has ushered in the fire season for this year in the North State. Let's start with a quick recap in the weekly.

Here are the two major fires that have emerged this week in Shasta County.

The Rock Fire, which started in West Redding on Wednesday around 4 pm, grew to 108 acres by the evening. As of midday Sunday, containment is at 100%.

Next is the Car Fire, which started on Sunday off Highway 44 and South Cow Creek Road, southeast of Millville. As of Sunday evening, the fire is at 600 acres with 15% containment.

On Tuesday, June 15, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors declared a countywide drought emergency. Additionally, they adopted a water conservation program that affects Sugarloaf, Castella, Jones Valley, Palo Cedro, French Gulch, Alpine Meadows, and Cragview. Restrictions include not washing your car unless the hose has a shutoff nozzle, no washing sidewalks or driveways, and not using water for decorative fountains. First-time offenders in the affected areas will be given a warning, but additional offenses could lead to fines.

Also on June 15, Patrick Henry Jones removed the plexiglass divider at the desk where he sits in the Board of Supervisors chambers, in front of attendees at Tuesday's board meeting. Interestingly, a video from the Red, White, and Blueprint Facebook page, released on Sunday, shows a dramatized version of events, depicting Patrick entering the board chambers late at night and removing the plexiglass shield. It's unclear why the video depicts him doing this at night when he clearly did so in front of attendees.

Additionally, while it appears as if in doing so, Jones violated the Shasta County Facilities Management Labor Contract, no penalties have been issued.

And now, to the breakdown.

The Brown Act

There’s been a lot of discussion about the Brown Act within the last year in Shasta County. It gets misrepresented a lot by the community, so I'm going to break it down.

To start, I'm going to give you a little background on what the Brown Act is.

The Brown Act of the California State Legislature, named for the Assembly member who authored it, Ralph M. Brown, was passed in 1953. It is an act that guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies. It applies to legislative bodies of local government agencies, which is defined as the governing body of a local agency, like the Board of Supervisors, in addition to any commission, committee, board, or any other body of the local agency.

The central provision of the Brown Act requires that all meetings of a legislative body be open to the public. Essentially, a meeting is any gathering of the majority members to hear or discuss any item of county business or potential county business. Meeting agendas must be posted 72 hours before a meeting, with the exception of special circumstance meetings, which require 24 hours via written or electronic notice.

Supporters of recall efforts in Shasta County have alleged Brown Act violations regarding the board chambers being closed to the public for physical attendance. This would only be considered a Brown Act violation if the public wasn't allowed to be involved in the meetings. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors meetings that were closed for physical attendance still adhered to all the basic tenets of the Brown Act.

In fact, one addition to the Brown Act, Section 54953B, specifically allows public meetings via teleconferencing.

Brown Act violations are taken very seriously, but it is important to note that sometimes an individual or small group will use the Brown Act as a weapon to advance their own agenda or try to intimidate board staff into delaying or reversing decisions on which they may disagree.

And that's The Breakdown for the week of June 14, 2021.