Did Turlock council members violate meeting law?
Councilmen Ted Howze, Kurt Spycher and Kurt Vander Weide violated the Brown Act, which governs California public meetings, when they discussed recollections of labor negotiations a month after approving the final contract, according to two experts. There isn’t a specific remedy for the offense, but with two violations in less than a year, the city could face prosecution if such acts recur, said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. Last month, Howze and Spycher say they discovered the contract between the city employees union and the city was not what they intended. They said they called Vander Weide, and Spycher also called Mayor John Lazar. The Brown Act outlaws “serial meetings,” or individual communication between a series of members for the purpose of reaching a decision away from the public eye. It takes a court ruling to determine officially whether the law has been violated, which would be a misdemeanor. The result of the secret discussio
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