001right beautiful name um [Music] best thing can you hear me uh yeah we can hear you thank you we're gonna start here [Music] thank you that's in the car I'll ask if you love you but Vera just all the staff changes can we get like an updated list um the roster or something just imagine hold on um I mean because it's like you know the name of the of the um receptionist like I'd like to you know if I go to school I'd like to be able to go oh yeah okay yeah we know that yeah it's coming out soon yeah yeah a little bit we have like a little excels or something does it have a lot of words anyway but yeah yeah I'll give you a smaller breath yeah thank you our love
002is uh starting to believe it yes um with respect to foreign on the agenda in closed session after a motion by member Chavez second by member the board unanimously approved the hearing officer's decision after hearing and all findings they're in and the Personnel action therein approved in the matter Vasquez versus Alan Rock Union Elementary School District case number adrs number 23-3479-k J M there are no further closed session uh actions to report we have proceeded to 4.01 on the agenda yeah so we'll move the section for governance around 4.01 Brown hat clean so good evening board um uh the board president the superintendent asked me to prepare a somewhat of a brown act refresher course for the board this evening as part of a study session and I think I have provided this training to
003all five of you at one point or another at some time in the past um so what I thought I would do is run quickly through some of the basic principles of the brown act since you all work with it and through it uh in your board member lives and then I thought I would try to put some focus on some recent developments in the law in this area and new requirements or enhanced or better clarified requirements uh and and try to do all of that I'm going to be very ambitious try to do all that in about 30 minutes or so maybe 40. uh and then answer any questions that you might have so I have handed out some uh some materials a PowerPoint presentation because well that's how lawyers do things we like
004PowerPoints um I just want to just remind you that uh this discussion here today in the materials because the brown act can be a very it can apply very specifically to individual board members or poses challenges and questions for individual board members so I'm this is really it you know in the in the nature of uh of a not a forty forty thousand foot overview more like a a low plot a low flying uh one a single engine Cessna maybe at 300 feet yeah there we go and so um but it's not it's not legal advice and so I would just also respectfully ask that not to not ask me for a legal opinion on an issue because we are an open session and so lawyers are low to give legal opinions an open session
005because uh my favorite phrase is you know the answer always depends right on the facts so um again the objectives for today are to review sort of the basic underlying principles of the brown act consider some of the recent developments in the law and to increase and ensure transparency and legal legal compliance by the district I'm on slide number three by the way okay so what is the brown act moving to slide number four uh it was a law that was passed in 1953 that guarantees and protects the public Public's right to attend and participate in meetings and decisions of local legislative bodies um some people call it sunshine laws but again the the over you know the overarching goal is transparency to ensure the Public's right to information to access into participation in the
006public process that's one side of the coin the other side of the coin is of course how to use the board and the district um what do you have to do to ensure the Public's right of access so that's what we're going to talk to what we're going to try to walk through today is you know what are your responsibilities in terms of access moving to slide number six um it is the intent I'm just reading from the law because these are really broad General statements of policy that are in the law that are very important but one of them is is that it is the intent of the law that uh the actions of a legislative body be taken openly and that deliberations be conducted openly okay those are big words uh actions between
007being taken openly and deliberations being conducted openly so the big operative words there are actions and deliberations uh and we're going to talk about that a little in a minute or so um but really I think you know the touchstones as you you know as you go through these uh meetings as you prepare for meetings as you communicate with board members and with members of the public I think you know the the basic questions that you should just be asking yourself is you know is are our deliberations as a board as five members are they being done openly are we taking our actions openly and in the Public's eye um you know are we in as a body are we ensuring meaningful public access to our board in our board committees and what does that
008mean how do we ensure meaningful public access to what it is that we do are our meetings open and transparent are we operating on a noticed schedule and are we following our noticed um and posted agenda um and I can tell you that having observed this board for a number of years now the answer to that is yes you all are doing all of that in your in your meetings and you're doing a great job about it and then the you know the other Touchstone is and you know are there secret votes or deliberations taking place outside of a noticed meeting so secret sound so Sinister um but uh you know I think really there the idea is is that are are there votes uh being taken and is there a majority that's being developed
009outside of a board meeting and outside of the purview of the public okay slide eight um and this is where I get into the you'll see I start to highlight things because I like highlighters um all meetings of the legislative body of a local agency shall be open and public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the local of the legislative body of a local agency except as otherwise provided in this chapter so the the big exception there of course is a closed session and closed session is restricted to the board and only staff who are essential to the issue being discussed by the board and legal counsel but the three big words in this section are meetings legislative body and local agency we know that the brown act applies to
010this District because local agency is defined in the law to include a school district so one down what is a legislative body mean then a legislative body is defined in the brown act as the governing body of the local agency this board uh and a commission committee board or other body of the local agency that's created by board by formal board action so now we know the board uh the brown act applies to this body the governing board we know it applies to certain of your committees and then of course by law it applies to other Committees of this District the primary one being of course the citizens Bond oversight committee because prop 39 says that committee has to be run in accordance with the brown Act okay slide nine um so what are the
011rules or how does the brown act apply to uh board committees and so um the brown act um well board advisory committees that are composed solely of members of the board that are less than a quorum of the board are not subject to the requirements of the brown Act unless it's a board standing committee that has continuing Juris subject matter jurisdiction or it's an advisory committee with a meeting schedule that's been fixed by formal action of the board um so of course a quorum for you is three so if you create a committee that's two members uh the brown act doesn't apply to that commit board committee unless it's a standing committee that has continuing subject matter jurisdiction and I think this sport has commit has created some of those uh standing committees uh or
012it's uh an advisory committee that's with a meeting schedule that's been fixed by formal action of the board and I believe that you had a 7-Eleven committee relating to facilities a couple of years ago that was that was a committee that was deemed by this board to be a brown act committee as well okay uh page 10 slide 10. what is a meeting uh for purposes of the brown act it means it's a Congregation of a majority of the members of the legislative body at the same time and location including teleconference locations um to hear discuss deliberate or take action on any item that's within the subject matter jurisdiction of a legislative body so there's a lot of big words in there that have a lot of different or that are defined in different places
013or or um explained in different parts of the brown act so the first thing to keep in mind is that the meeting has to be made up of a majority of the board meaning three or more members of this board it says at the same time and location including teleconference location so one thing to keep in mind is that the brown act defines teleconference to be very broad um it doesn't uh you know it's not the I think the traditional definition of teleconference which is you pick up a phone and you get into a teleconference situation it could be FaceTime it could be chatting it could be text messaging basically think about it as being electronic communications so a meeting can happen when you hear discuss deliberate or take action on any item relating to
014the district using either face-to-face meetings or electronic communications okay um let's skip to uh slide number 13 please are there any questions so far yes um also this relates to all at the same time but also because it relates to like serial yeah so uh so and the the even as to the teleconference portion of the of the part of the statute that I just read There are some recent amendments to the brown act that creates exceptions that we'll talk about as well um towards it I think it's one of the bigger issues uh that'll be part of this discussion Okay so we know the definition of a meeting because I just read it to you but when is a meeting not um or when is a meeting really a meeting for purposes of the
015brown act and when is it not a meeting okay Communications outside of a noticed meeting that are not authorized by the brown Act May constitute a meeting and violate the brown act and there are really three major categories of of these types of communications that may be a brown act violation one is called a Serial meeting another one is called a hub and spoke meeting and then the other one is uh you know the more recent phenomenon of uh social media uh and by social media I include all kinds of electronic communications uh through different types of portals and the challenges that poses are those pose for uh Brown act compliance so on slide 14 it's a quick description of a serial meeting a Serial meeting is if one board member a contacts another board
016member B about an item of District business and B contacts member C at that point a majority has been involved and this is a Serial meeting that depending on the facts and circumstances may be a violation of the brown Act so you want to avoid conversations like that outside of an open and noticed uh meeting the next type would be a hub and spoke and think of a bicycle wheel with spokes and the Hub an intermediary contacts or communicates with at least a majority of the board members to develop a collective concurrence on an issue to be considered or action to be taken by the board this could also be a brown act violation now what's different here one of the one of the ways that a hub and spoke is different than a Serial
017meeting is that you'll notice that hubbin spoke it involves potentially an intermediary it doesn't have to be a board member who is the Hub reaching out to others it could be it could be anybody it could be a member of the public um who who is reaching out to individual board members to assess or to get commitments um about how a person is going to vote on something and then reaching out to another board member sharing that information and then a third board member saying here are the votes you know here's what what's going to happen that's a hub and spoke that's also depending on the circumstances it could be a brown act violation the Third Kind would be social media Communications and uh this you know social media and I'm on slide 16 now
018um social media uh you know it's really um it's really been now I'm feeling old it's been around for what about 15 years or so right uh Facebook has been around for 15 years or so um and lawyers really uh wrestled with how to deal with social media Communications for a long time until 2020 in the legislature got around to addressing it with some amendments to the brown act and a b assembly bill 992. and so the lawyers were left to deal with sort of applying the general principles of openness and transparency in the brown act into social media Communications um okay so ab992 which is now codified in the government code at 54952.2 what that says is that a member of the board May communicate on inter internet-based social media platforms to answer questions
019provide information to the public or to solicit information from the public regarding a matter within the district subject matter jurisdiction provided that a majority of the members of the board don't use that social media platform to discuss among themselves business of a specific nature that's within the legislative body's jurisdiction okay so what I would suggest here is uh interpret the word discuss among themselves as broadly as possible and also of a specific nature because we all know how social media can work and when you have comments and threads um sometimes uh you know comments you any particular post may have multiple comments to it maybe even hundreds but if there are two particular or three particular people you're looking at in there and you're communicating positions within that thread that raises problems because now that
020thread can be used as a means to create a collective concurrence on a particular issue that's coming before the board um and and ab992 also takes a hard line stand and says that a board member shall not respond to directly to any communication on an internet-based social media platform regarding a matter that's within the subject matter of the district that is made posted or shared by any other member of the legislative body so I'm not a social media user but to the extent any or All of You Are if one of your board colleagues posts something on a social media platform relating to District business you cannot comment directly upon it and um comment is um because you should you should interpret comment very broadly as well meaning no Emojis no reactions thumbs up thumbs
021down sad care with hugs and hearts coming out any of that stuff um you should just avoid it all together okay um any questions on social media this used to be a Hot Topic like two years ago but I think the statute was resolved a lot of the issues okay so let's just go to doing do's and don'ts on social media um that's slide number 18. you may use your internet social media to answer questions provide information to the public to solicit information uh within the board's jurisdiction you should not use digital icons thumbs up uh care emojis any of that when responding or reacting to a board member's post and you should never respond directly to a board member's post on social media okay so um I'd like to go to slide number 20
022now what is not a meeting okay um so the brown act tells us uh that whenever um a majority of the members are doing certain things that could constitute a meeting under the brown act and um that could lead to problems the brown act also tells us what is not a meeting under some circumstances so individual or contacts or com conversations between a board member and any other private individual that are not part of a serial spoken Hub or permitted or prohibited Social Media communication that's not a meeting so you can still talk out talk to reach out to your constituents there's nothing in the brown act that prevents you from doing that it's when that when a board member involves that constituent or that third party in a Serial communication or as a hub
023or spoke in a communication that becomes a problem okay um what about individual Communications between board members and staff um the brown act actually carves out an exception for that and it says an employee or official of a local agency May engage in separate conversations or Communications outside of a meeting with members of the board in order to answer questions or provide information regarding District business if that person does not communicate to members of the legis to other members of the body what a what the first member's position is may be on an issue so let's say if you have a question regarding the district's budget and you know it's going to be discussed at the at the next board meeting there's nothing in the brown act that prohibits any or all of you from
024talking to Mr Chang about your questions uh together information about that item but none of you should share that information that you receive for the conversations that you have with Mr Chang with each other you shouldn't put it on social media for sure uh and Mr Chang likewise should not be discussing his conversations with any of you um with the other board members okay what else isn't a board meeting and this is slide 21. attendance by a majority of the members of a legislative body attendance by uh members of this board at a conference or similar Gathering open to the public that involves uh discussion of issues of general interest to the public an open and publicized meeting organized to address a topic of local community concern an open and noticed meeting of another body
025of the district an open and notice meeting of a legislative body of another local agency so for example this board could attend all five of you could attend a meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors or the city council an open and notice meeting of a standing committee of the board provided that the members of the legislative provided that the members of the board who are not members of the standing committee attend only as observers or you can all attend a purely social or ceremonial occasion in all of these exceptions to the definition of meeting um it is a requirement that if three of you or more are present that you did not take that opportunity at this other event other occasion to discuss programs or business or of specific nature relating to
026the district so just because you're elected as a member of this board doesn't mean your Civic engagement and involvement for other agencies um has to be terminated you can still attend you just can't talk about things going on in the district okay so um going on to slide 22. so uh you know the brown act tells us a lot about or it gives us the rules about how the district has to conduct its meetings and the role and responsibilities of individual uh board members in that but so who then is really responsible for making sure this all happens and um it's the board president of course um you become the primary uh uh um police officer of the board uh of conducting the meetings in a way that is compliant with the brown act and
027that's in your board bylaw 9121 and it says that the board President is responsible for calling the meeting to order announcing the business to come before the board in its proper order enforcing the board's policies relating to the conduct of meetings and to help ensure compliance with the brown Act uh by uh being the traffic officer in directing the flow of conversation uh ruling on issues of parliamentary procedure uh putting motions to a vote and being responsible for the orderly conduct of all board meetings that's in your board by law 91-21 all of those items those nine items responsibilities fall in one way or another with uh you know within the brown act uh in terms of conducting an open and transparent meeting your ball your board bylaws put that uh put that responsibility on
028your board president your board bylaw also says that if the board president is not present then that responsibility falls to the vice president um and if the vice president is not president then it falls to the clerk interestingly uh your board bylaws provide for both a president and a clerk it doesn't provide for a vice president's position but historically and as a matter of practice this board has elected a board vice president at every uh organizational meeting in every December for as long as far back as I can remember so but there is a reference to the board vice president in board bylaw 9121 so that's the role of the board president you're bored bylaws and this is 9005 which is the governance standards also impose some of you know these Brown act obligations on
029each of you as as board members so under your board bylaw um all every individual board member shall keep uh confidential matters confidential um that relates not just to District business but it relates to anything and everything that happens in closed session closed session is absolutely confidential and it is on a rare occasion when closed session Communications um can be released or can be disclosed in public one of which relates to the commission of a crime if they're if a person has a good faith belief that a crime is being committed but by and large I would say that closed session Communications are considered sacrosync sacrosanct under the law they just almost impenetrable to get those and so I would just uh encourage you all to be mindful and to avoid any discussion whatsoever about
030what may or may not have happened in closed session and what may or may not have been said or what one person's reaction may or may not have been on a closed Set uh session item also as I mentioned um only you know uh post session deliberations could be made up like only a vote and we just said a good thing accusation yes please under the law as it stands well it portion of the district attorney it would have to be a report to law law enforcement whether it's a district attorney or or a police or a sheriff's office but there would have to be some reasonable basis for believing that um within the context or within the confines of the closed session that a law was being broken and so you it could not
031be sheer speculation it would have to be based on real evidence of what people said or did or shared out of closed session no um so if there is a law that is being broken um let's assume that there's an agency where a board in closed session is deciding to uh spend dollars District public monies in a way that is clearly not authorized a board member could take that report um could make a report with law enforcement that they believe that uh public funds are being misappropriated in that way law enforcement would take the report and then would conduct its own investigation but that portion of the law is meant to protect the person who has a true good faith uh uh belief that a law is being broken now if it's if it's based
032on just rank speculation no evidence whatsoever then there and at the very end of this uh this PowerPoint um you know violations of the brown act can constitute a criminal defense they're misdemeanors but they could be charged as a criminal offense so and we have recent examples yes yes Santa Clara City to be more specific I was trying to avoid that but um yeah the thing is that it's always hypothetical until it's not that's right individual spaces of series issues and that's one of that's uh you know that it's a great point but yeah it is it's absolutely absolutely worth mentioning that um these prosecutions do happen they're very rare but they do happen so what is it about balancing the public to HML yes right with the decision that the information is moving from
033a confidential to the open setting anyway I think that point about react to the board and not as individuals yes is so important because power can be well right and and that really goes goes to the point of you know how does uh how does the board Act um really under your bylaws it says that the board acts by a majority and then through the board president to the extent necessary to implement or to communicate that action um but it never rests with any individual member of the board outside of the board president unless the board takes an action delegating that specific responsibility or standing to another board member and even if the board were to take that action that would have to be agendized it would have to be part subsumed within an agenda
034item to do that so um okay so those are the governance standards on on slide 23 you know the board shall operate openly Brown act issue with trust and integrity and govern within adopted policies and procedures and your your policies and procedures actually incorporate in a very detailed way all of these Brown act requirements okay um so I'm going to go on to slide 24. and this is going to be a little bit more of the nitty-gritty but um you know I started thinking about uh you know regular meetings versus special meetings study sessions because I think I've seen this issue coming up more and more recently um in other districts that I work with as well so there are different requirements for regular meetings versus special meetings versus study sessions which is what this
035part of this meeting is today you know and as an example uh if you look at the meeting agenda for today it says special board meeting agenda slash special board study session so we're treating these as two different things and there's a there are important reasons for this and the reasons really relate to the notice that you're communicating to your public what may or may not happen at these board meets okay so let's start with the regular meeting there on slide 24. a regular meeting by law this body this board is required to set a schedule of meetings for the next coming year and I believe you do it in either December or January but you set a schedule of meetings you may adjust those meeting dates as the year goes on but you do
036set a schedule of meetings for the year those are your regular meetings um there's a lot of different import to that uh to that title I mean there are some things under the Education Code actions that the board has to take or hearings that you have to hold that can only occur at regular meetings uh Mr Chang has a list of those we you know we've had to talk about it in the past um but and again the idea there is if if the public is following this board it sees that it's a regular meeting schedule then it's communicating that only certain things or certain things have to happen within the context of a regular meeting so the public can stay more informed and look at Agenda as as they're getting placed um a regular
037meeting agenda has to be posted uh at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting if it's not posted within 72 hours in advance of the meeting then it's not a regular meeting agenda item it might be a special meeting or it might be a study session like we're talking about here to uh like we're doing right now okay so let's talk about the regular meeting you have to have the agenda the agenda has to contain a brief General description of each item to be transacted or discussed at the meeting including closed session but the law also says that the description doesn't have to exceed 20 words um every agenda for a regular meeting has to provide has to include an opportunity for members of the public to directly address this board on any item
038of interest to the public that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board okay so um you you always have a public comment section on your agendas and um the on your regular meeting agendas and [Music] um anybody anybody can is allowed to come up at that time and to make any comments about anything of interest to the public they're not confined uh to what's on the agenda no action can be except in certain exceptions no actions could be taken on any item not appearing not appearing on the agenda okay uh slide 26 ever since um for every school district that has had a website uh you have had to post your agenda on the district's website and more specifically it has to be um uh it has to the the district has to
039provide a direct link to the agenda from the home page and you have done that as well so that's why at the top of your website I think you see there's a button that says current agenda that takes you to the agenda right there all public agencies are having to do that now so um slide 27 what is a special meeting so a special meeting is anything that's not a a regular meeting or a study session like we're having right now um special meetings of the board can be called at any time by either the presiding officer the president or a majority of the board members except that you can never hold a special meeting regarding in either open or closed session regarding the salary salary schedule or other compensation of the superintendent assistant superintendent
040or other management employees of the district it's a relatively recent I would say 10 years ago change to the brown act because there was a many districts would agendize uh employment contracts for special meetings and the legislature decided to get rid of that and again it was the idea of the public knows when a regular meeting schedule where it is and what it is and you can find these types of agreements to regular meetings that's that's uh that promotes transparency so the special meeting can be called by the board president or by a majority of the board the fact that a majority of the board members get together to decide whether or not they want to have a special meeting isn't itself a violation of the brown Act if three members get together and say
041I want to call a special meeting because I want to approve this vendor for this project and that person gets two other board members on board that is a violation of the brown act because you're developing a concurrence to hold a special meeting to approve something in the decisions being made out of the public eye the way it would have to happen is the three board members or a board members says I think we should hold a special meeting to consider the award of this contract period that's it so you have to be very circumspect if you're anticipating or are you thinking that you might want to uh that you think that a special meeting might be necessary you just have to be careful in how you approach your fellow board members in setting that
042meeting um for a special meeting at least 24 hours notice is required and that means that the agenda has to be posted at least 24 hours before the board meeting once you have the special meeting you can only discuss information I'm sorry items that are included on the agenda no other action can take place and again as I said you cannot call a special meeting to discuss or even consider the salaries or salary schedules or compensation to Executive Management in your District doesn't matter if it's closed session or if it's open session okay next slide is 28. um study sessions Retreats public forums and discussion meetings so this is your board bylaw 9320. and this says that the board can occasionally convene a study session or public forum to study an issue in detail or
043to receive information from staff or feedback from members of the public I've seen this more most frequently in the last few years in relation to the preparation and approval of the lcap districts hold additional meetings to discuss the lcap but in a study session or public forum context in other words the board and staff want to get more information from the public before the uh official hearing and approval of the lcap and or budget the board can also convene a retreat or discussion to discuss board roles and relationships you've had Retreats I think for almost every year for as long as I've I've known these meetings are not regular meetings so they are handled as special meetings in terms of the notice requirements which means that 24 hours notice is required for them even though
044they're not regular or special meetings per se they still have to comply with the brown act they have to be held in Open Session they have to be held within the district's boundaries um you know you the board can't have a retreat in Santa Cruz because Santa Cruz is not within the territorial jurisdiction of Alum Rock and then as to retreats in public forums uh the um and study sessions um your board by law states specifically that there can be no action items as part of that special study session or sorry study session or Retreat and so again that's why this was framed as a special meeting and as a study session special meeting closed session and a study session for purposes of today okay um now I've said that you have to agendize things
045in advance depending on whether it's a special meeting regular meeting study session um there are exceptions to that um sometimes emergencies arise and so uh you can there there is a way to do that that I'll talk about in a minute when emergencies do arise to put something on the agenda at the very last minute okay um turning out to slide 30. circulation of meeting material so this has been a recent uh uh addition to the law it's more in the in the nature of a clarification so with the and this relates specifically to regular meetings of the board so if there is a writing that's a public record and what that means is that it's a record that's generated by the staff by the district related to an agenda item for Open session at
046a regular meeting and it's distributed to all or a majority of all of the board less than 72 hours before the meeting then the district has to make the writing available for public inspection here at the district office or whatever other location the district may decide to designate and then the district shall list the address of the office or location uh designated on the agendas um in terms of where uh folks could see those materials so we've done it in the past for things like the budget and the lcap we've posted the address but this is now a more it's a more specific clarification of what's required to comply with the brown act in the past I believe we've always posted it on the agenda immediately at the time it's distributed to board members and
047then made it available uh here at the district office as well and again that's that's a relatively new clarification in the law okay public comment slide 31. uh as I said earlier every agenda for a regular meeting has to provide an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the board on any item of interest to the public that's within the subject matter jurisdiction of this uh of this District special meetings are different um special meetings you would still have the opportunity for public comment um but um but it the board can limit it to only those item that item or those items that are on the agenda um for discussion at that board meeting that's it so um you doesn't mean that you can't have that public comment if somebody wants to comment
048comment on something that's not on the special meeting agenda it just means that the board can restrict public comments on a spec uh at the time of the special meeting um slide 32 with respect to public comment at special meetings or regular meetings uh the board can adopt regulations limiting the total amount of time allocated for public testimony on particular issues and for each additional speaker I believe this board has done it you place a cap of 20 minutes on any individual agenda item and two minutes per each additional speaker the time for public comment as this District does this board does then by law you have to provide at least twice the allotted time to a member of the public who uses a translator so if you have a let's say you have a
049Vietnamese speaking uh person who is at your board meeting V or use you you provide translation services they use the translator and your time limit is two minutes that person automatically gets four minutes uh the board can't prohibit public criticism of your policies your procedures your programs or Services of the district or of the acts or omissions of the board of the district that's First Amendment issue embodied in the brown Act um members of the public have the right to come into board meetings and to record uh audio record uh or um uh video record a board meeting or take pictures you cannot prohibit that from happening unless unless or until it's causing A disruption which I'll talk about shortly um and you can't restrict the broadcast of your open and public meetings uh in
050the absence of a reasonable finding that the broadcast cannot be accomplished without noise illumination or obstruction of a view so in other words and I think I've seen it at this board meeting in the or these board meetings in the past and at other agencies sometimes people will come with phones or iPads and they will broadcast a meeting live on Facebook live or some other platform unless they're obstructing or somehow interfering with the with the conduct of the board meeting you cannot um prohibit that or limit it okay slide the Edco tells us that the governing board acts by a majority of all the membership constituting the governing board so sometimes words will say I only have three members present today so does that mean two members can pass something for the board the answer
051is no the law is very clear it's a majority vote of all of the membership constituting the governing board since you have five members any action always always requires uh three members you cannot have any secret ballots whether preliminary or final so for example when you have filled vacancies on this board you rep and you take straw polls to narrow the pool of candidates those those votes are never secret they are read out loud okay page 34 I'm sorry slide 34. teleconference of teleconference meetings of the legislative body Okay so uh let's go back to pre-covered uh pre-coverage uh this board public agencies could hold teleconference meetings where one or more members were in a location different than this boardroom or where where the other board members are present they could do it through electronic
052means either audio or visual or both the requirements were that the meeting agenda had to be posted at all teleconference locations so in other words if president Farm is going to be in Washington DC at the time of a regular meeting but you want to participate in the meeting we would have to post that agenda at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting not just here but at the location you're going to be at in Washington DC this is still the law um the teleconference meeting your your portion of the meeting and and to CL and to be very specific it has to be posted for 72 hours continuously at your location in Washington DC so sometimes there are practical limitations on how this will work but it's happened before we've had members who
053were in a distant location for an extended period of time um that has to be posted the the teleconference meeting has to be conducted in a manner that protects the constitutional rights of the PA of the public who is attending your meeting um the location has the specific location has to be identified in the notice and agenda of the meeting and each teleconference location has to be accessible to the public doesn't matter if you're in Washington DC or Saskatchewan Canada it has to be open to the public this becomes an issue when sometimes people go on business and they stay in an area that is not uh open to the public it could be a resort it could be a hotel with security and they want to participate from the room that does not work
054it has to be completely accessible to the public during that teleconference at least a quorum of the members of the of the board have to participate from locations within the boundaries of this of the district so if Mr Farm is in Washington DC uh and another board member is in Saskatchewan Forest the the remaining three members have to be participating from here within the boundaries of the district um the agenda also has to say that members of the public have the opportunity to address the board from the remote locations in other words if I want to go to Mr Farm's hotel room um or another board member's tent in the Saskatchewan Forest I have to be I have the right to do that the reason this becomes unwieldy sometimes and especially in the past is
055because if a board member was sick and wanted to participate telephonically and they were at home in bed legally they had to open up their house and their bedroom for watch their recovery so a person can participate in the in the board meeting and then finally all all votes had to be taken during the teleconference meeting by roll call always always not just closed session but Open Session as well okay covet hits and we all know that the rules just didn't apply anymore because they weren't written for pandemics really and so um it was a learning experience for everybody uh the governor the governor was issuing a a series of of emergency proclamations and executive orders uh and things seem to be changing every 15 or 20 minutes literally for a few weeks there um
056now the legislature is finally sort of coming to grips with all this and so there is a new way by which teleconference meetings can happen are there several new ways um one of them is um a board can hold a teleconference meeting without complying with all the requirements that I just walked you through if it's held during if the meeting is held during a proclaimed state of emergency and uh and state or local officials have imposed or recommended measures to promote social distancing um and the board is holding the meeting for the purpose of determining whether as a result of the emergency meeting as a result of the emergency meeting in person would present imminent risks to the health or safety of attendance of attendees and or that as a result of the meeting I'm
057sorry as a result of the emergency meeting in person would present imminent risk to the health or safety of attendees this is really this exception to not having to apply comply with the teleconference requirements really is addressing the pandemic situation that we you know we're now still coming out of and where there has been a proclaimed state of emergency so I think what the legislature was trying to do is saying okay covid covet may have been a one in a hundred years event but who knows it could happen again and this is a way for us to be prepared so that public agencies can respond immediately if there is a proclaimed state of emergency and especially uh Public Health crisis there seems there is a yes so the board would have to make these findings
058every 30 days um and I think the idea there was um you know I think early in the pandemic again information was moving so fast nobody really knew whether these things should have been done by executive order by legislation and I think this was sort of a compromise the 30-day requirement fires January oh yes yes there so so uh the legislature recent likes to do this they like to have one version of the law through one period of time and another version of the law that starts on uh uh January 2nd 2024 I just didn't include that here that'll be part of the next Brown act update at the end of the year okay um I don't want to get into all of the requirements if you do that because I think there's um there's
059really a more important one or one that you're might be likely to use um in the near future and that's really that starts on uh slide 39. so the other reason Brown act amendments also allowed for permitted telephone teleconference meetings and again teleconference including zoom and Microsoft teams and all kinds of different video platforms and and telephone platforms um without having to comply with all of the requirements about opening up your house and doing all of those things um so um and in other words and these new exceptions only apply or they apply when there hasn't been a proclaimed state of emergency Okay so again no state of emergency is required a board member May participate remotely in a meeting without meeting the requirements in slide 34 that I just walked through for just cause
060or due to emergency circumstances okay so an individual board member can now participate remotely without having to open up your bedroom while you're recovering from the flu or opening up your hotel room or your tent wherever it is but only under limited circumstances let's talk about just cause first just cause is that the the board member has to notify the board at the earliest opportunity possible including potentially at the start of a regular meeting of their need to participate remotely for Just Cause and the member has to include a general description of the circumstances relating to their need to appear remotely at the given meeting a board member can only use a just cause remote participation two times in any calendar year just cause is defined in the statute and this is on Slide 40.
061so the board member can use a just cause excuse or or reason for appearing remotely in the event of a child care or child or caregiving need of a child parent grandparent grandchild sibling spouse or domestic partner that requires them to participate remotely a contagious illness that prevents the board member from attending in person a need related to a physical or mental disability that's not being that can't be accommodated or while the member is on traveling on business of the board and the district um in another state of this board or of another state or local agency so uh and I think that takes into account that uh you may be employed by another state or another agency okay so that's just cause the other one is emergency circumstance so remember just cause you can
062only use two times a year two times a calendar year for an emergency Circumstance the board member has to request the board to allow them to participate remotely due to emergency circumstances and the board has to take an action to approve that request so the board has to request a general description of the circumstances relating to the need to appear remotely um the the description does not have to exceed 20 20 words I don't know what the magic is about 20 words um and it doesn't require the board member to disclose any um any medical diagnosis or disability or personal medical information you just have to provide enough information to your fellow board members that you are facing an emergency circumstance um that requires your remote participation emergency circumstances also defined on pay on slide
06340 at the top and it means a family or medical emergency that prevents a member from attending in person so since this emergency circumstances are not agendas how is that built one to four is going to go through I'm just wondering right because it's an emergency we get a call you know right before the board meeting I talked to the world president somebody has an emergency but they want to participate so um what the law says is that the person who is making this uh request has to make it as soon as possible or as soon as reasonably possible at the earliest opportunity possible that means that sometimes it may be right at the beginning of the meeting and that's okay the law says that if that's the case and I think what the law
064assumes is that the other board members will ask you know will do their due diligence say okay when did you first become aware of this situation if they say three days ago then that's not an emergency circumstance so is that conversation yes all of it is an open session a phone call right that you know I can't make it so that phone call is gonna become public is to yes maybe those that assessment of whether or not to Grant yes right in public absolutely yeah she just wanted to I'm trying to Envision this should be good if it's not an issue you know because it happens it's a board member I don't know got it 24 hours so the board member can circulate the request in advance of the board meeting to all of the
065board members the board members just can't discuss it until the meeting starts and you're officially in Open Session so board member a sends an email to everybody fellow board members I tested positive for covid uh early this morning I am going to request that my that I participate remotely uh as an emergency circumstance and I will make this request at the beginning of the meeting and then you all are present that person joins the meeting by telephone and says I'm requesting to appear remotely because of my emergency circumstances and then the board takes the vote it's okay that it happened 24 hours ago but the board members should really you know when they have an idea if you think you might have to do this don't be shy about reaching out to me um to
066help walk you through this but you should really inform your board as soon as you have a reasonable idea that you're going to need to do it yes and it also says that the word shop provided economy means by relationships okay so the circumstance of New York there's the emergency circumstance it feels like There's A and B and Jeff Cobb could be emergency we're like travel would be usually yeah I'd like it to apply under judgment yes so travel definitely would not be an emergency circumstance just looking at the definition of emergency circumstances it doesn't apply to T but not but A and B could be so I want to be remote under emergency so just cause of course because of what what constitutes just cause under the the definition is much broader than emergency
067circumstance but remember there's a limitation on Just Cause remote participation and that is you can only do a two times a calendar year [Music] that's right and you you what you've been having used anything that maybe you used to then you got to bring it to the board or yes yes yeah so yeah for example in that situation and that wouldn't be exclusive what was it three one three total cars in one year um yeah no it yeah foreign because it's it's not a no it's not an emergency circumstance because it's not a physical or or medical emergency that prevents you from attending there's a horoscope name you can't get well that's not a physical that's not a personal physical injury that's a damage to the car yeah [Music] but with that you know and
068it was three in a row in one year so with that be executable it and I still have all of the photos just in case that they were told as long as it involved medical or phys or medical issue or physical injury I would say it fits under the definition of emergency circumstance um I don't see it fitting under the any of the other ones for uh just cause yes don't have a limitation there's no limitation one there is a limit there is a limitation I was just trying to find no more accidents okay so if you turn to page four or slide 41 yes and it's the third it's the third bullet point and what it says is that um these Provisions don't allow a board member to participate remotely for a period of
069more than three consecutive months or 20 percent of the regular meetings for the board within the calendar year or more than two two meetings that the board meets fewer than 10 times per counter you you move you meet more than uh 10 times per calendar year so you wouldn't be able to use that for more than three consecutive months or 20 percent of the regular meetings that you have let's say you have um you meet once a month um 12 regular meetings yeah so uh 13 so 20 what is 20 uh 13. um but really it's it's three consecutive months so you might have been able to fit in that okay but that said there is a limit there's a separate limitation that applies to this one as well legislature was trying to do was
070they recognize how complicated things got with covid um and trying to accommodate all of these different situations um but fortunately or unfortunately we ended up with a really long statute and a lot of different carve outs and and ways to request this so but I think the good news is is that um there are these exceptions now that allow under certain circumstances remote appearance without having to post the agenda at your house without having to agree to open up your home to people to come in all of those things it's just that there are only limited circumstances foreign last year last last game no no it was middle of last year um I want to say around July I could be wrong um so um there are additional requirements for this so if a member
071takes advantage or or utilizes the just cause or emergency circumstance to participate remotely um these are the requirements the board member has to publicly disclose at the meeting before any action is taken whether any of any other person 18 years of age or older are present with them at the remote location with the board member and the general nature of the members relationship with such person so this is so you know that requirement to me is designed to make sure that people aren't just using these exceptions willy-nilly to go to Hawaii yes before any action is taken foreign [Music] um the the board member has to participate through both audio and visual technology and your camera has to be turned on I want just one thing now I I'm a fan of in person needed
072but I do understand I mean right so they actually thought about that so at the end of slide 43 . in the event There's A disruption that prevents the board from broadcasting the meeting to members of the public using the call-in option or internet-based service option or in the event of A disruption within the district's control that prevents members of the public from offering public comment using the using either of those options the board shall take no further action on items appearing on the meeting agenda until public access to the meeting via the call-in option or Internet Internet option is restored any actions taken while there has been a disruption are specifically subject to challenge under the statute right uh so basically this is basically saying you know we're going to just be at recess
073until the power was stolen yes and that's true that's a great that's a great uh Point that's true even if four of the members are here in the boardroom and there's an audience your boardroom is packed but you have a board member participating remotely and there's an interruption in the internet service um you have to stop that's it until everything has been restored the president of the board would just saying that there's been a disruption to more than yourself who's participating by public conference at this time of the Lord shall we assess until the you know internet or mobile half hour or yeah yeah and that's true I can just add one thing real quick that's true because as a condition to allowing a member to use the just cause or emergency circumstance basis for
074remote participation once you allow that for a board member you have to allow that for the rest of the public so the public now can say I don't have to be there I can participate remotely because member uh Farm is doing it and the board has to allow me my opportunity for public comment remotely on a real-time basis so once I interrupt once that is interrupted it basically shuts down the meeting yes it does you do because of the possibility of where you want to ensure your internet yeah that was going to be my question I guess we're coming back to it then if there's an emergency and we're in the beginning of a meeting I would say um wouldn't we have to have something set in place like well as fate would have it
075you do actually because you you broadcast your meetings over Zoom over YouTube oh so you don't have a zoom link anymore oh um yeah so you'd have to put something in place very quickly so the work will be able to deny this is possibly so your requested it is so the board would be able to deny the emergency circumstance request yes so like all right um to accommodate or to comply with laws yes accomplish ment so the board to the important action to allow that to happen um the board would be interested and that would apply with for just cause too because remember just cause doesn't require the board's consent but where I was going with this is that if if a board member participates under the just cause exception you still have to allow
076public comment and participation remotely as well and comment on a real-time basis so if you don't have the capacity then it doesn't seem like it would ever happen to to make that change like that all right so that ability only needs to be provided from where that board member is publicly meeting unless it's completely contagious no it has to be that that that opportunity for remote participation has to be provided to the public as well not just that board member so in another participates on Zoom public comment would have to be allowed yes all the public comments wherever people are at yes yes yes and our emergency circumstance how do you just like let everybody know what the zoom is you could post it um on the district's website okay I mean the way we
077were talking about it could be at like 6 31 and we decided it's not a perfect processarily so you do so you do webcasts over YouTube so you could post it on folks would hear it on YouTube or you could somehow put a slideshow it says for 10 minutes yes but I mean it opens up and it's like we're willing to open that up yes emergency yes based on that emergency okay so so they're they're I'm glad we had this conversation there are um so if you look at the requirements for Just Cause And emergency circumstance meetings they're on slides 40 41 42 and 43 so it is there is a long list of of what the board if the board decides to allow remote participation all of these different things that would have to
078be done and and it's I think the general rule is again transparency and access and fair play if a board member gets to do it the members of the public get the opportunity to do it as well so it's getting late so I won't walk through all of those um any any other questions on that I would say that's been the really the biggest change in the law I think in the last year or so um those requirements and I've I've helped a couple of districts work through it and allow it um when the when the just cause or emergency circumstances were met it's not impossible but it it's you know it's a little challenging at first okay um slide 44 real quick under the brown act all of your with very limited exceptions all
079of your regular and special meetings have to be held within the boundaries of the local agency um and then um slide 45 um how does the board take an action on an item that is not on the agenda um every business every District every agency that I've ever worked with has had to use these processes at one point or another so one of the ways to do it is sometimes emergencies happen so uh and there has to be immediate action that is authorized by the board and so let's say you have a regular meeting and that afternoon a uh a transformer blows out and um destroys classrooms or something like that and has created a toxic substance situation and you need to address it uh immediately um the the board can hold an emergency meeting
080without complying with the 24-hour notice requirement um in the case of an emergency situation which means a work stoppage crippling activity or other activity that severely impairs public health safety or both as determined by a majority of the members of the board majority says yes that that is a public health situation um and so you can you can have you can take that action without meeting the 24-hour notice requirement the other uh the other part of this would be if there was what's called a dire emergency which means a crippling disaster mass destruction terrorist act or threatened terrorist activity I've never seen this happen in my years so thank goodness for that but really it's the public health uh and safety that would allow an emergency situation yes nature of Crisis yeah um and then
081there's another way to do this but on which an action could be taken on an item that's not on the agenda and it's What's called the need for an immediate action and so the board can take an action on an item of business not appearing on the posted agenda Upon A determination by two-thirds of the members of the board present at the meeting or if less than two-thirds of the members are present a unanimous vote of everyone present that there is a need to take immediate action and that the need for the action came to the attention of the district subsequent to the agenda being posted so the board would have to decide I'm sorry would have to establish on the record in an open meeting or at the beginning of the meeting that there
082is a need to take an immediate action and why is there any a need to take an immediate action and then the need for the action didn't come to your attention until after the agenda for that meeting was posted so it's sort of two different options one requires emergency uh emergencies are required board majority and then the need to take immediate action requires something more than a board a majority so there is there are ways to take action the point of this is that there are ways to take action on items that are not on the agenda but there are only very narrow circumstances and really deal mostly with emergencies um slide 47 is about um actually uh for the rest of this it's about a closed session um and uh just real quick um
083the board is allowed to meet in closed session only to the extent expressly authorized by the brown Act has to closed session items have to be agendized if there is no exception in the brown act for discussion in closed session then the discussion has to take place in Open Session generally speaking closed session discussions are designed to preserve confidentiality Personnel issues negotiations litigation litigation strategy that's really the overarching theme if you turn the page uh slide 48 um you know the brown act tells us what are the general permissible categories of closed session discussion they include litigation real estate negotiations public employment labor negotiations student explosions and state audit reports and threats to Public Safety as well but these are really these six bullet points here these are really the most common that are used
084keep in action I'm on slide 49. if an action is taken in closed session then it generally has to be reported out at that same meeting um generally there are exceptions to when a report out is made and other than the meeting in which the action is taken I've already talked about the confidentiality of closed session information and I've already talked about how um closed session can only include uh staff essential to that discussion um and then um the last real section here this is a new law as well or a recent laws on slide 50 has to deal with the conduct of meeting and removal of disruptive persons um the one option is that if a group or group of persons uh render the ordinary the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible and Order
085can't be restored restored then the board may take an action to have the meeting room clear and continue in session the board can take that action the new the newer development law is that the board president May remove or cause the removal of a person disrupting a meeting provided that prior to removal that disruptive person was warned that the behavior was disruptive and that if they failed to stop being disruptive then they would be removed from the meeting and again it's the board president who exercises um that Authority and that's a that's a relatively new addition to law as well then you know who exactly would would divorce person direct such adversed please use in those circumstances where I have seen a disruptive meeting uh the usually law enforcement is called to remove somebody they
086may need arranged or that um we should have a uh on a San Jose's climate on call yeah can I ask about um public comment um and disruption human public comment I've seen where if it's not on top that if it's not on the engine it's not related to the agenda item and it steers toward a personal attack is usually in a remote situation they can be if they they're warned and they don't redirect they can be you know muted or disconnected Yes except that remember it's only for special meetings where the public comment has to relate specifically to something on the closed session agenda if it's a regular meeting then the public has the right to comment basically on anything within the dirt the district's business jurisdiction especially item six right and then yes
087disruptive or nasty or whatever they can right it should be about it yes and so the the board president as the person who is responsible for for running the meeting can make that call and shut that person off and say nope that's that's item six so you've had your time but it's an item too General you know that's the pretty yeah but it can't be yeah threatening yes yes and yeah they use our regular platform to talk about the warrior training events we clearly have no joystick moment so that's right at that point you can shut them down that's right all right and then uh just random cussing yes yes yeah that's part of the disruption you know the board and the board president's right to control the meeting to avoid disruption or to prevent
088further disruption to the procedure I just didn't remember that the white supremacist yes I have a question uh I know that now that we're all here we still call each member when we vote I know we started doing that after the pandemic when we were remote are we able to go back to I mean all of them yes you're you're only webcam you know you don't have to do wrong um but I mean in real time right as the pandemic yes hitting people were not um there wasn't that the board meeting right before the schools closed people were working on my level during the social media right and so we have to right and so like we literally had this stand up and you know putting the people apart right and until they saw that
089action right now that everybody follows that right so it was it was it's never been removed it is yes but okay yeah it's fine I mean I think that there are advisabled people on very emotional and you never know right thank you um and if you have any other questions you know feel free to send me an email or give me a call Hop it up figure out you know what what the particular she might be yeah it does especially studies thank you