By Haylynn Conrad
I’m all for government transparency. The people of Malibu deserve to know how decisions are made, who’s influencing them, and why certain policies move forward. But transparency shouldn’t come at the expense of actually getting things done. Unfortunately, the Ralph M. Brown Act — California’s open meetings law — makes it a lot harder for local officials like me to do the job we were elected to do. I had no idea until recently anything about this Brown Act. I actually asked everyone, including the governor of this state, if he would suspend it, and I got a clear “no.” But he also said if I want, I can write legislation to change it for the future — thanks, I’ll add that to my to-do list.
The Brown Act was designed to prevent backroom deals and ensure public participation in government. Okay, both of those things are great, right?…