COUNTY WANTS 'SUNSHINE' BOARD ORDERS CLOSED-MEETING LAW REPORTS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Moving swiftly to comply with state open-meeting law, Los Angeles County's Board of Supervisors ordered reports Tuesday on taping closed-session meetings, adopting a ``sunshine act'' and other measures to open up county government.

The flurry of motions that passed unanimously came in anticipation of next Tuesday's meeting to discuss the county's compliance with the Brown Act, which requires most decisions be made in public. The supervisors have invited the public to tell them about any open-government problems they've had.

``This is long overdue for the county of Los Angeles,'' said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the board's chairman. ``The county is notorious for keeping itself under the radar screen when it conducts its business and we have to get on the public's radar screen.

``We make big decisions that affect millions of people every week and the public deserves a more transparent and open county government. The county is perceived as a closed system and it is a cultural phenomenon born out of the way the county has done business for decades. I think it needs to come out of the shadows.''

The supervisors have been under intense public criticism for voting in a December closed session to kill a ballot initiative intended to raise the wages of the county's 82,149 home care workers and voting last month to stop taking minutes of discussions in closed session.

Open-meeting advocates also criticized them for conducting much of their business through their deputies in closed-door meetings and in meetings with Chief Administrative Officer Davis Janssen, which critics say is illegal.

Open-meeting advocates told the supervisors they should seek legal opinions from independent counsel and not County Counsel Lloyd Pellman on some of the measures they are considering passing.

``Of course, you are not going to hear me oppose this board's look at open-meeting and open-record laws, but at the same time I want to make what I think is an obvious comment,'' said Richard McKee, president of the California First Amendment Coalition.

``I think it would be important for the board to get an independent legal opinion. I would like the board to think about this as this discussion goes forward to looking beyond county counsel, who has standing opinions and involvement in past practices that might make it difficult for that office to be open to new ideas.''

Yaroslavsky, the lone vote against the plan to quash the home care initiative, said he's ``less interested frankly in what Mr. Pellman thinks.''

``Don't put us into a corner, Mr. Chairman,'' Supervisor Don Knabe said. ``These folks think we do all this devious work in the dark.''

In the December meeting, Pellman was instructed to withhold certification of the ballot measure, thus preventing it from going before voters in November. He changed his mind the next day and called three of the board members for approval. The Brown Act bars serial meetings of board members.

On Friday, Knabe and Supervisor Gloria Molina introduced motions that passed 4-0 Tuesday seeking reports on adopting a local sunshine act, taping closed-session meetings and moving foster-child death reports from closed to open session. Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was absent.

Yaroslavsky introduced a motion for next Tuesday's meeting directing county staff to prepare an ordinance providing that meetings of supervisors' deputies, called to discuss matters which have been set for board action, will be conducted in accordance with provisions of the Brown Act, regardless of whether such meetings are covered by the act.

Yaroslavsky's motion also calls on the county to post on its Web site all documents that are part of the board's agenda, including board letters, and a complete, proofread transcript of board meetings at a cost of $750 a meeting.

The motion directs each county department head to adopt a policy for releasing official documents and report back in four weeks on compliance, renew for 10 years the board policy directing departments to honor press requests and for Janssen's office to conduct annual seminars with department heads to ensure they are informed of the priority the supervisors have on open-meeting laws.

In order to avoid violations of the Brown Act by county commissions, which Yaroslavsky said have on occasion withheld agenda materials from the public, county officials would be instructed to prepare materials and hold annual seminars for commissions, committees and task forces to ensure they adhere to open-meeting laws.

Ron Snyder, co-chairman of the Los Angeles County HIV Incarcerated Task Force, wrote a letter March 20 to the Los Angeles Press Club Sunshine Coalition saying in July 2001 his group sought records from the county health Office of AIDS Programs and Policy. Getting no reply, the group filed a Public Records Act request on Aug. 14, requiring the office to respond in 10 days.

After hiring an attorney who threatened to sue to get the documents, the county released the documents on Sept. 27, Snyder wrote.

Finally, Yaroslavsky's motion asks Janssen and Pellman to prepare amendments to county policy to provide that no department head, employee or consultant shall be required to obey any directive from the supervisors that would violate any law in pursuit of a county objective.