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Informal meeting broke state law on public meetings
by Robb Fulcher
City council members violated state law concerning public access to their meetings when four of the five council members–a possible voting quorum–met Friday with six residents concerned about rowdiness during the Fourth of July holiday.
The informal meeting at City Hall was held after residents contacted several council members. Such meetings are frequent in Hermosa and other cities. But this time instead of one or two councilmen showing up, there were four: Sam Edgerton, Kathy Dunbabin, Julie Oakes and Mayor JR Reviczky.
Because a quorum was present, the gathering is considered a special meeting of the city council under the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act, said Terry Francke, general counsel for the non-profit California First Amendment Coalition.
City officials violated the Brown Act by failing to post notices of the meeting before the public and with local news organizations, Francke said.
City Manager Steve Burrell, who was present at the meeting, said on Tuesday that he had researched the matter and found that the meeting did violate the Brown Act.
"Usually two council members attend a meeting like this, but the residents called all the council members, and four wound up showing up before the meeting was over," Burrell said.
"In the future they should consider a meeting of this nature to be a Brown Act violation," Francke said. "The important thing, when there is no deliberate attempt to violate the act, is to make sure the staff is informed that a meeting like this must be noticed." ER