Within a month, prosecutors concluded that the Los Angeles Unified School District's board had violated the law by voting in secret to allow the superintendent to explore whether to sell or finish construction of the controversial Belmont Learning Complex. The board's attorneys denied wrongdoing. But the board later rescinded the vote, marking a victory for the district attorney's office.
"One of the best ways to deter public corruption is to have transparency in government," Cooley said recently. "That injects honesty."
Some elected officials said they support open government but believe the law sometimes imposes limits that stifle free discussion among officials.
"They're so afraid of stepping on the Brown Act that no one talks to each other," said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris.
Last year, prosecutors faulted Parris and two other council members for attending a barbecue at the newly elected mayor's home, where they hobnobbed with prospective city commissioners. The law prohibits a majority of a government body from meeting privately to discuss issues within its jurisdiction.
Parris said no city business was discussed and called the event "purely social." But the district attorney's office disagreed and described the event as an illegal meeting. A prosecutor noted in a letter to council members that the city had been warned five months earlier, before Parris was elected to the council as mayor, that it had already violated the law.
At that time, a prosecutor complained that the council appeared to have hired a "facilitator" to meet with each member and develop a plan to remove the city manager. The law prohibits public officials from using intermediaries to help a majority come to an agreement outside of public view.
Parris said he disagreed with the findings about his barbecue but has sought to make the city as open as possible.
"Maybe it's because my first action was to have a barbecue and I got my hand slapped, I'm hypersensitive to it," Parris said. "I certainly don't fault the D.A."
Some complainants, however, fault the district attorney for not doing more. Genevieve Clavreul, a nurse and regular critic of the Board of Supervisors, said some elected officials deserve prosecution for violating the Brown Act.
"I'm glad there has been progress, but I don't think they are aggressive enough," she said.
