Copies to: Mayor
Frank Quintero, Council Members John Drayman, Laura Friedman, Ara Najarian and
Dave Weaver, and City Manager Jim Starbird
Reference: California Attorney
General Opinion No. 92-212,
From the above reference:
“(a) Every agenda for regular meetings shall
provide an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the
legislative body on any item of interest to the public, before or during
the legislative body's consideration of the item, that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the
legislative body, provided that no action shall be taken on any item not
appearing on the agenda unless the action is otherwise authorized by
subdivision (b) of Section 54954.2. However, in the case of a meeting of a city
council in a city or a board of supervisors in a city and county, the agenda
need not provide an opportunity for members of the public to address the
council or board on any item that has already been considered by a committee,
composed exclusively of members of the council or board, at a public meeting
wherein all interested members of the public were afforded the opportunity to
address the committee on the item, before or during the committee's
consideration of the item, unless the item has been substantially changed since
the committee heard the item, as determined by the council or board.”
According to the above content from Opinion No.
92-212 by Attorney General Daniel E. Lungren, Mayor Frank Quintero has
been violating this provision of the Brown Act by refusing to
allow members of the public to address
the Glendale City Council on agenda items unless they announce their desire to
do so before consideration of the item commences. Members of the public have no way of knowing
beforehand everything that is going to come up during an agenda item
presentation to which they may take exception, and therefore wish to address
the council. For that reason it is
essential that members of the public be allowed to announce their desire to
speak on an agenda item during its
presentation.
Please advise Mayor Quintero that his newly
invented method of denying the public its right to address the city council is
a violation of the Brown Act.
Sincerely,
Hal Weber, (halweber@earthlink.net)