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Expert: Notice insufficient for proposal talk

BY CHRISTINE BEDELL, Californian staff writer
e-mail: cbedell@bakersfield.com | Monday, Oct 1 2007 9:55 PM

Last Updated: Monday, Oct 1 2007 9:58 PM

The Kern High School District board shouldn't have had any discussions of posting "In God We Trust" in classrooms because it hadn't given the public sufficient notice it was on the meeting agenda, an expert on open government law said Monday.

But district officials said before the meeting that only initial talk -- no formal action -- was planned and that's OK.

The meeting agenda simply said there was to be a "trustee request for new board policy" and that is not descriptive enough under California's open meeting law, called the Brown Act, said Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware.

Californians Aware is a nonprofit that seeks to educate the public on its rights to government information, meetings and other business.

Francke added that preliminary discussion often determines the direction of public policy so full disclosure is required.

"The standard is, 'is it descriptive enough to give a person who might be interested in being present (at the meeting) enough information to decide whether to attend?'" Francke said of the agenda listing. "This is a very simple proposal. It could have been expressed in one sentence."

The proposal, coming from board trustee Chad Vegas, was to post "In God We Trust" in every Kern High School District classroom. Vegas said he was just going to introduce the idea, perhaps spur questions from fellow trustees and ask for the matter to be put on the KHSD November meeting agenda.

"I am announcing a month in advance for this to be put on the agenda for the November meeting," Vegas said. "The board doesn't have to act."

District Superintendent Don Carter also pointed out that Vegas' idea was spelled out more thoroughly in a document filed in the so-called "agenda packet" that goes out to interested parties.

The public can request a copy of that document, Carter said, and it was included in the meeting materials sent to The Californian.

"If it were an action item, there ought be more information there," Carter said of the agenda.

Carter conceded the document was not posted with the agenda on the KHSD Web site or on bulletin boards where agendas are routinely put up.

Francke said the existence of "backup materials" the public could seek out did not excuse an incomplete agenda. As for the notion Vegas was only pitching an idea, Francke said "Initial discussion often determines the likelihood of adoption."