The people’s right to speak and be heard is a cornerstone of our democracy.
That right would be strengthened by my bill, AB 194, which was approved Wednesday by the Assembly Local Government Committee. The bill puts more teeth into the Brown Act with penalties that will make local agencies think twice about shutting out citizens.
I sponsored this bill to protect the public’s right to fully participate in decisions made by local government. If passed, it will hold local elected officials accountable in a stronger way to the people they represent.
For 60 years, the Brown Act has helped ensure that the public can comment on matters that their city council, board of supervisors, water agency, etc. are debating.
However, despite the guarantees of the Brown Act, the public’s voice is too often inappropriately silenced.
Under the Brown Act, agencies can place reasonable restrictions on the time, place and manner of public comment. But too often, they go too far and shut down people’s comments.
And if there are complaints, local agencies can just dismiss them with a promise that it will not happen again – without having to actually allow the person whose voice was silenced to speak.
AB 194 allows the offending agency to correct its violation. For example, an agency can simply call another meeting and have the issue heard again.
If an agency fails to correct the violation, AB 194 allows an individual to take a complaint to a judge who could void the action taken by the agency.
The penalties in AB 194 are not new. There are already penalties in place for local agencies that fail to provide enough notice to the public on when hearings are scheduled, or for not conducting meetings openly.
AB 194 simply applies these existing remedies to instances where the public is wrongly silenced during otherwise open hearings.
AB 194 will now move to the Assembly floor. Stay tuned, I will keep you posted on its progress.
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Mayor Reed’s most frequently and consistently uttered phrase during citizen comments at council meetings:
“Your time is up”