from the LA Times | California Section | page B-4 | Thursday Aug 30, 2007
The caption reads: "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announces an initial five-year partnership between the city and the Los Angeles Unified School District that will allow him to help oversee two high schools in the L.A. Unified system as well as the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. The news conference, also attended by the school board and district officials, was at John Liechty Middle School in the Pico Union District."
photo credit: Al Seib Los Angeles Times
The picture clearly shows a plurality of the members of the Board of Education (in parliamentary parlance, a "quorum") together in a room discussing a matter neither officially agendized nor publicly noticed - in apparent violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act (California Government Code Sections 54950-54963). One might add the the courts have already held that the mayor can't do what is being proposed here, or discuss previous representations to the City Council that the mayor and his partnership are separate from the City of Los Angeles - but let's address one issue at a time. - smf
Maybe you can get the LAUSD board to publish the minutes of their public meetings. I have tried all sorts things, including contacting the Board memmbers, the LA Times, Daily News but so far almost all the current minutes are unclickable.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/board/secretary/html/agendas/min/07min.html
I take your point but I think you missed mine: The meeting pictured - which was certainly unofficial - was a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act in that a majority of the Board of Education assembled and discussed policy pending before the board without properly calling a meeting. As four members endorsed the pending policy it can be safely said that that policy is "a done deal" - established before public comment and debate.
ReplyDeleteThat practice - whether conducted in the media spotlight or behind closed doors - is specifically what the Brown Act was legislated to prevent.