Attorney General Opinion:[br]A City May Post A City Council Agenda On An Electronic Touch-Screen Kiosk Rather Posting A Paper Copy On A Bulletin Board

Issue

The City Prosecuting Attorney of Fresno asked the Attorney General for an opinion on whether posting an electronic version of the city council meeting agenda on a touch screen kiosk, rather than posting a paper copy on a bulletin board, would comply with the public notice requirement of the state’s open meeting law. The Attorney General opined that it would. (Attorney General Opinion 04-1217)

Facts

The Fresno City Council decided to post electronic versions of its meeting agendas on an electronic touch-screen kiosk, and to discontinue the traditional method of posting paper copies on a bulletin board. The kiosk would be fully accessible to the public, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, free of charge, and located in front of City Hall.

The City Prosecuting Attorney asked the state Attorney General if this type of electronic posting would be legal under the state’s open meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act).

Attorney General’s Analysis

The Attorney General’s opinion examined the language of the Brown Act, and compared the public access to the electronically posted version of the city council agenda to the access to the paper copies on the bulletin board.

The Brown Act, the Attorney General said, requires that meetings of local legislative bodies be open and public, that no item not appearing on the agenda be considered, that the agenda include the date, time and location of the meeting, and that it be posted at least 72 hours in advance of the meeting, “in a location that is freely accessible to members of the public.”

Posting the electronic version on a kiosk in a location convenient to the public, free of charge, and available all hours of all days, “is consistent with the act as a whole and furthers its purposes,” the opinion said. In fact, the electronic format would probably provide more convenient access for most citizens than the paper on the bulletin board, it added.

Therefore, the city’s plan to post electronic versions of its agendas rather than paper ones did comply with the Brown Act’s public notice provisions, the opinion concluded.

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