Board of Supervisors Settles Lawsuit

The Board of Supervisors admitted that it violated the state's open-meetings law when it held closed-door discussions with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss a statewide prisoner-realignment effort and will pay $14,750 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit filed by a statewide advocacy group, the county announced Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed in February by Californians Aware, which alleged multiple violations by the board in late 2011 surrounding its discussions of the prison-realignment effort, including a conference call with Brown and a face-to-face meeting with the governor during a September visit to Los Angeles.

County officials issued a statement saying that while board members believed the concerns over the prison issue warranted the discussions, the board now acknowledges that it did not have proper authorization to hold closed-door discussions with the governor.

"The board is fully committed to transparency and openness, and with
complying with both the spirit and letter of the Brown Act (the state's open-
meeting law)," according to the statement.

Officials with CalAware could not be reached for immediate comment.

The county will pay $14,750 to cover CalAware's legal expenses and will
include a statement regarding the September 2011 meetings in the official
"Statement of Proceedings" for the board. The board also agreed to restrict its future use of closed sessions and will release transcripts of its closed-session meetings of Sept. 20, 21 and 26.

In response to the criticism over the meetings, the board pushed for legislation that would give it leeway to meet in closed session with the governor or U.S. president to discuss threats to public buildings or services.