How the Santa Cruz City Council Fails To Respect the Spirit and Intent Of The Brown Act and First Amendment

As citizens, we have certain rights, guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, and further enhanced and procedurally detailed by California's Ralph M. Brown Act, whose introductory section reads thusly:

“In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.�