So, as you probably know by know, I am a professional public servant. I work for the City of San Francisco. If you know a "government employee" joke, I can almost guarantee you I've heard it. And, once people hear I work for government, I have to bear my share of "why is government so..." questions. On the plus side, I've learned a lot about how government agency boards/councils work, and why they do certain things in a certain way. Many of the perceived peculiarities of how government agency boards work has to do with something you may have heard of called the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act for short.) This is the state law that governs how public agency boards must conduct business in California.
Now, many consultants and lawyers (who know way more than I) make a living as Brown Act experts, and I am certainly not in their league. But I feel qualified enough to hit some high points that may answer some basic questions you may have had about why/how our Board conducts its business.
The Board must...
...publish an annual schedule of "regular" meetings. (Any meeting that is not a "regular" meeting is considered either a "special" or "emergency" meeting.) - Our Board publishes this schedule in the summer for the upcoming year, and the meetings are usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:00 pm.
...publish an agenda of all items to be discussed at a regular meeting at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting (24 hours for a special meeting, and 1 hour for an emergency meeting). - Our Board publishes the agenda through an email distribution (sent to anyone who has requested to be on the list) and by posting the agenda on the school district website.
...conduct Board business (i.e. deliberate then vote to take action) in "open and public" meetings. Any gathering of more than two members (of a 5-member Board) in considered a meeting and is in violation of the Brown Act if it has not been noticed, agendized, etc. - Considering this requirement along with the agenda requirement above leads to the next item , which can really frustrate people who don't fully understand the rules under which the Board operates, which is that...
...can only take action on items that are on the agenda, given the aforementioned posting and agendizing requirements. - This means that if you show up at a Board meeting and, during public comment, bring up the most insightful, fabulous, award-winning idea, but the idea happens to have nothing to do with an item on the published agenda, the Board by law can't take any action. The lesson here is that if you have a concern/burning issue/great idea that you think requires deliberation and potential action by the Board, simply showing up at one meeting isn't going to get your item heard. You need to work through staff and or individual Board members (by email, phone, etc.) in advance to request that the item be put on the agenda (agendized). Or, at a given regular meeting, you can address the Board members and directly request that the item be agendized for the next regular meeting. By the way, this public participation in the creation of Board agendas is supported by the California Department of Education, which says on its website that...
..."adopt regulations governing the procedures to be followed to...ensure that members of the public may include items on the agenda for consideration..."
...consider only specifically defined items during "Closed" session, to which members of the public are not admitted. - These items are almost always related to either personnel or litigation issues, e.g. taking disciplinary action against an employee or conferring with the Board's attorney regarding a claim or lawsuit to which the district is a party.
I think that's plenty for one post. If you have any questions or comments, or if you have an issue or area you'd like to see addressed in this blog, don't hesitate to leave a comment or send an email.
-Rob (your friendly neighborhood bureaucrat)
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