Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance Highlights

Meetings:

• Assures that meetings take place when and where people are most able to attend.

• Keeps decision making in the open for the City Council, Rent Board, Library Trustees and all City boards, commissions, and committees, and extends requirements to subcommittees that formerly were not subject to public noticing.

• Gives the public the right to know how their representatives voted in Closed Sessions even if motions were not approved and no action taken, and requires full disclosure of private discussions regarding development issues and with lobbyists.

• Provides a better defined meeting structure so that you know in advance how much time members of the public have for comments and requires enough meetings so that meetings can be adjourned around 11:00 p.m.

• Ensures adequate time for decision makers to hear from the public and study relevant information before voting on an issue.

• Permits the public to place items on the agenda of the City Council and Rent Board with 100 signatures and on the agendas of boards and commissions with 50 signatures.

• Informs citizens about the activities of their representatives on regional agencies and in meetings with the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

• Requires full disclosure of private discussions regarding development issues and with lobbyists.

Access to Information:

• Requires that all materials be placed on the City website well in advance of meetings.

• Mandates that meeting audio recordings be made available over the Internet.

• Guarantees timely access to public information and minimizes delays and costs of obtaining copies of important documents.

• Prohibits arbitrary withholding and redaction of City documents requested by the public.

• Promotes pro-active posting of electronic records to the City website, reducing or eliminating the high cost of responding to FOI requests.

• Provides guidelines in an atmosphere of rapidly changing technology for the City to smoothly transition to electronic records, reducing paper and significantly decreasing costs while ensuring full access to public information.

Implementation:

• Establishes an independent, appointed Sunshine Review Commission, with protections against influence by the City Council or City officials.

• Authorizes the Commission to work proactively with staff and decision-makers to improve public processes, noticing, and access to information.

• Requires timely rulings by the Commission on alleged Sunshine violations, and provides penalties for violations in accord with existing Berkeley and State law.

• Provides a process for public identification of Sunshine violations, to correct them before costly litigation could become unavoidable.

• Identifies funding sources for the Commission to bring enforcement actions, and minimizes financial risk for individuals seeking to address violations.