Dear Board of Supervisors,
We are concerned that the County
Clerk will no longer be preparing and
sending out preliminary Board of Supervisor meeting agendas (see message
below). This has been a very
helpful and useful service to
ensure an open and transparent government.
In the past, preliminary agendas were emailed Wednesday
afternoon, and the final board packet usually posted on Thursdays. But we have
been told this is going to stop—that only the final meeting agenda and packet
will be available, and not
until Friday afternoons.
This may meet Brown Act requirements (as explained), but
it cuts two days out of public knowledge of board meeting items. Eliminating access to preliminary
meeting information will not be helpful to the public, newspapers, or other
media, and will be detrimental to a “more open and transparent process.”
Newspapers will not have the Tuesday meeting information
in time for Friday papers. The
public and other agencies and departments will not have enough time to
distribute important meeting information before the weekend.
We’re not sure how elimination of preliminary agendas for
the public is a great cost savings, as we understand these preliminary agendas
are still being created and are available at supervisor's request. Sending the same preliminary agenda
to the email list shouldn’t take much time, and we ask you to please
consider keeping that courtesy in place.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Colleen Platt, Secretary
MyValleySprings.com