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Watchdog Group Launches Petition to Protect Brown Act

Californians Aware is asking voters to sign a petition that would protect key provisions of the Brown Act, the state's open-government law.

A Sacramento-based organization launched a petition drive Sunday to amend the California constitution to ensure that municipal meeting agendas continue to be offered to the public.

In June, the state Legislature gave California cities and counties the option of not posting meeting agendas and other reports to save money. This action suspended a key provision of the Brown Act, which requires California cities, counties, school boards and special districts to conduct their meetings openly.

On Sunday, Californians Aware launched a petition drive to place a proposition on the statewide ballot.

"Even though the law might not hold public officials accountable for no longer posting agendas or providing adequate descriptions of items on them, angry voters would hold them accountable, and political exposure has always been a far more powerful motivator of Brown Act compliance than legal exposure," stated Californians Aware on its website.

There is also a bill that would preserve the Brown Act provisions, but it remains in limbo in the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the state Senate passed it.

To read more about the petition, click here.

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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
KD May 8, 2013 at 02:03 pm
Regarding Patch's response to this comment: A 'typo' is when someone hits the wrong key on theRead More keyboard, like typing "Democrut" or "Demacrat." Calling a Democrat a Republican is a MISTAKE and party affiliation is very easy to check check these days. Maybe this is just a "blog," I'm not sure. But if it's a "news site", and the people writing stories are purporting to be "journalists" or "reporters" could easily do better and should do so. Let's not minimize a factual error in a "news" story as a "typo."
Dale May 6, 2013 at 07:32 pm
I think that Fletcher flip-flops partially because he is looking for means to bring HIS politics toRead More the table.
Hoa Quách (Editor) May 6, 2013 at 11:55 am
This was a typo and it's been fixed. We apologize for the error.