Wang terminated his connection<\/a> during a study session on a housing project. According to the report, Wang objected to voting to appoint negotiators, arguing that the agenda did not clearly notify the public that a vote would occur, which would be a Brown Act violation. The law states that a publicly elected body cannot make decisions on issues that aren\u2019t properly noticed to the public.<\/p>\nThe Brown Act doesn\u2019t specify rules for adjourning a meeting, said David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition. However, the Brown Act does state that the public should be able to participate from the remote location where an elected official is logged into a meeting. So when Wang left the meeting, it forced the meeting to end because it prevented the public from participating from his location.<\/p>\n
Wang subsequently apologized for leaving the meeting, saying that his laptop battery had died and he was unable to find a working outlet, rendering him unable to log back in to the meeting.<\/p>\n
The civil grand jury also expressed concern about Cupertino\u2019s rules for listing the location of the teleconferencing council member. According to the Brown Act, the city must list the location from which they are participating on the agenda and make sure it is publicly accessible. However, the city has repeatedly listed incomplete locations or places that may not be publicly accessible, like private hotel rooms and airport terminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cRequiring a member of the public to go to a council member\u2019s private room is not in keeping with the spirit of the Brown Act,\u201d the report stated. \u201cFurther, if the hotel requires the guests to use room keys to access the elevator, as many do, private rooms are not accessible to the public as required by the Brown Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loy said it could be \u201ca pretty serious Brown Act problem\u201d if a city council member regularly participates remotely in council meetings while they\u2019re traveling on personal business.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of holding elected office is being accountable and responsive to the people,\u201d Loy said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the basic requirements of holding office. Are you prepared to put the people first and be accountable and responsive and prioritize your service to the people that elected you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The report noted that Cupertino\u2019s interpretation of open meeting law could allow cities to weaponize the Brown Act, intentionally or not. According to the Brown Act\u2019s teleconferencing provisions, a quorum must be physically present in the city when teleconferencing is used. However, the civil grand jury argued that allowing meetings to end if a teleconferencing council member leaves creates \u201ca non-statutory condition for the continuation of a meeting\u201d and can unlawfully curtail public comment, interrupt deliberation on agendized items, force delays in city business and undermine the transparency and openness required by the Brown Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis practice elevates the convenience of the teleconferencing member over the public\u2019s right to transparency and participation,\u201d the report states. \u201cIt also creates a mechanism by which a member can intentionally halt discussion, block votes or disrupt the public\u2019s business.\u201d<\/p>\n
To address this, Cupertino has implemented a requirement that members of the public who want to speak from a teleconferencing location provide at least five hours\u2019 advance notice. However, the civil grand jury criticized this move because those who want to speak at a city council meeting can simply show up to council chambers.<\/p>\n
The report recommended that teleconferencing by council members only be permitted from locations that are genuinely publicly accessible, and that the city revoke its requirement that public meetings must end when a teleconferencing council member leaves and shift accountability to maintain public meeting compliance onto the teleconferencing council member.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time the county has scrutinized Cupertino City Hall. In 2022, the civil grand jury found evidence of mutual distrust between Cupertino City Council members and city staff, which led to a long line of resignations and fill-ins<\/a> in the city manager\u2019s position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cupertino City Council may have violated California\u2019s open meeting law by allowing one of its members to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,8,186,43896,2584,405,181,23,205,100,13,88,90,89,198,14368,200],"class_list":["post-356258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-cupertino","tag-cupertino-city-council","tag-first-amendment","tag-government","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-santa-clara-county-politics","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}