City of Downey: Public access to records and meetings an important part of integrity to the city

City of Downey is among other government agencies in California that comply with the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act. To assist the public, the city has created an online database for agendas, documents, minutes, resolutions and other information available online for the public.

The federal government has the Freedom of Information Act; individual states like California have developed its own set of laws to maintain access to public records for individuals and media to request. Both the federal and state law provides the public with the rights to access government records and documents.

California has the Brown Act, which gives the members of the public as well as media access to meetings.  The public has the opportunity to attend government, school board and non-profits formed by public agencies meetings and these governing bodies are not allowed to meet privately with the exception of reasons to have a closed meeting.

Downey City Councilman, Alex Saab feels that both acts are important to the integrity of our democratic system and transparency to the public. He represents District 5 area in the City of Downey and was raised in the city.

“It’s extremely important that members of the public have access to public records as well as having these laws help the public see how the government reports itself and for residents to have confidence in its elected officials,” Saab said.

While he did not have the exact numbers on how many public records requests come through the city hall since that is apart of the city clerk’s office, he did mentioned that most of the time they (requests) come from the media who are looking for documents for a story or investigating someone and the other portion of the requests come from people looking for information.

“(Acts) make us absolutely more accountable and transparent to the public. It gives another tool for the public and the media to have access to records and documents from the government. Government should be serving the people and these acts help keep us accountable to the people,” Saab said.

For the City of Downey, if an individual or member of the media needs to make a request of public records they would go through the city clerk’s office to fill out the appropriate form. There is a small fee for photocopies of the documents and the city has within 10 days to respond to the request.

According to the California Public Records Act it understands the right to individuals privacy and agrees that access to information concerning the conduct of the government is a fundamental and necessary right to every person in the state.

The Brown Act requires criteria for public meetings which includes posting of notice and agenda of meetings with 72 hours (three day) notice of the meeting, notifying the media, holding the meeting in the governing body jurisdiction, allow non-disruptive recordings or broadcasting, not require a “sign in” for anyone, allow the public to address concerns, allow for public vote (no secret voting) and treat documents as public.

Violations of the Brown Act can happen very easily if the criteria are not followed.

Last week El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, Calif, a local high school near the City of Downey is currently being investigated for a possible Brown Act violation for entering into a contract in closed session.