BROWN ACT: APPLICABLE TO INFORMAL MEETINGS AND DINNERS

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OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY OPINION NO. 72-14 FEBRUARY 12, 1973 SUBJECT: Brown Act REQUESTED BY: City Attorney OPINION BY: Assistant City Attorney QUESTION NO. 1: Is the Brown Act applicable to informal meetings, such as Dinners, of the City Council where a quorum is present? ANSWER: No, unless public business is discussed QUESTION NO. 2a Is the Brown Act applicable to informal meetings, such as Dinners,of the City Council where less than a quorum is present? ANSWERS No, unless the members of the Council constituting less than a quorum constitute a permanent committee ~. appointed by the City Council pursuant to a minute action, resolution, ordinance or chart®r provision and are discussing the public's business at such meeting. If the m®mbers present constituting 1®ss than a quorum ar® simply part of an "ad hoc" com- mittee, informally appointed, they may discuss the public's business at an informal dinner without complying with the provisions of the Brown Act. ADALYS IS The secret m®®ting prohibition of the Brawn Act has b®en made specifically applicable to informal dinner meetings by the case of fiacramento_Newspaper Guild v. Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, 263 Cal. App. 2d, 41 (1968). The court held that a luncheon .gathering which included a quorum of the Board of Supervisors and other county officers to discuss a strike which was underway against the County was a meeting within the Act, and therefore, newspaper reporters were im- properly excluded. The court's language at pages 50-51 of the decision is an axc®llent summary of the reasoning behind its decision. Th® court stet®ds "In this area of r®gulation, as well as others, a statute may push beyond debatable limits in order 25