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Public criticizes district website; board disputes Brown Act violation
Summary
A resident told the Montero board that broken links and missing agenda attachments on the district website are violating the Brown Act; board members and counsel said current meeting materials were available and that archival attachments are not required, and staff offered to work offline to fix specific broken links.
A local resident, Michelle Bragony, told the Montero Water and Sanitary District board on March 5 that numerous agenda attachments and archive links have been broken since October and said the condition impedes access to public records and “is breaking the Brown Act.”
Michelle said she had emailed district staff multiple times and added other board members to her messages to get a response. “It’s nonfunctional. It’s breaking the Brown Act,” she said, asking the board to respond publicly.
President Scott and district counsel responded that Brown Act requirements apply to current meeting agendas and materials and that the board had posted the agenda and materials required for the present meeting. Counsel (Christine) confirmed the district’s position: the Brown Act requires current agendas be posted on the website and the district is in compliance for the current meeting.
Board members acknowledged the public’s frustration and explained technical causes for broken links. A longtime technologist on the board described how link rot and changes in hosting can produce 404 errors for archived attachments and encouraged the commenter to file specific trouble tickets identifying broken links so staff can track and fix them. The president offered to meet offline with the commenter to identify missing links and troubleshoot.
Board members said the district has been transitioning to a new site and that some attachments may not have been migrated cleanly; staff and directors encouraged residents to report broken links with the URL of the failing file to expedite repairs. The board did not adopt a formal remedy during the meeting but agreed to follow up on identified broken links and to offer direct assistance to the resident reporting the problems.
The exchange recorded both a public allegation of noncompliance and the board’s assertion that current Brown Act posting requirements were met; the board recommended filing trouble tickets and said staff would work with residents to repair specific broken attachments.
