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Staff reiterates Brown Act limits on committee emails; subcommittee communications clarified
Summary
Staff reminded the Local Sales Tax Oversight Committee that the Brown Act applies to their work, warned members against committee-wide email discussion of committee business, and clarified that two‑member subcommittees may communicate among themselves and with staff but should be cautious about sharing subcommittee deliberations with other members.
At the start of the meeting, a staff member provided a concise Brown Act overview for the Local Sales Tax Oversight Committee, reminding members that the state open‑meetings law applies to this citizen oversight body and explaining how subcommittees differ from the full committee.
The staff member said committee-wide email threads that discuss committee business are not allowed under the Brown Act and advised members to direct substantive questions to the chair or to staff rather than copying the full committee. "What we can't do is if there's any conversation specific to the business of the committee... we can't be having that in the email forum amongst all of the... council members," the staff member said.
Committee members asked follow-up questions about subcommittee communications and remote participation. Staff clarified that a subcommittee of two may communicate freely among itself—by phone, email or other means—because two members do not constitute a quorum; staff cautioned, however, that members on a subcommittee should be careful about sharing subcommittee deliberations with other committee members in a way that would effectively create a serial meeting. Staff also noted that rules enabling remote participation for committees will roll out in a phased way and may require council authorization under SB 770‑series implementation steps.
The Brown Act guidance set procedural expectations the committee relied on later when appointing a two‑member subcommittee to audit Measure K ledger entries.
