Local government: open meetings: cease and desist letters.

Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act) , requires each legislative body of a local agency to provide the time and place for holding regular meetings and requires that all meetings of a legislative body be open and public and all persons be permitted to attend unless a closed session is authorized. Existing law authorizes the district attorney or any interested person to file an action by mandamus, injunction, or declaratory relief to, among other things, determine the applicability of the act to actions or threatened future actions of the legislative body. This bill would prohibit a district attorney or an interested person from filing an action for an alleged violation of the Brown Act for past actions of a legislative body, unless certain conditions are met, including, but not limited to, a requirement that the district attorney or interested person submit a cease and desist letter to the legislative body being accused of the violation setting forth the alleged violation, and the legislative body has failed to issue an unconditional commitment to cease and desist from the alleged past action within 30 days of receiving the letter. The bill would require the unconditional commitment to cease and desist from the alleged past action to meet certain requirements. The bill would require that an action filed to challenge an alleged violation of the Brown Act pursuant to these provisions be dismissed with prejudice if the legislative body enters into an unconditional commitment to cease and desist from the alleged past action. The bill would authorize the legislative body to enter into an unconditional commitment to cease and desist from the alleged action at any time, unless the plaintiff succeeds in a civil action against the legislative body and is awarded attorney's fees. The bill would provide that if an action filed to challenge an alleged violation of the Brown Act pursuant to these provisions is dismissed with prejudice because the legislative body has entered into an unconditional commitment to cease and desist from the alleged action after the 30-day period described above, and if the filing of that action caused the legislative body to enter into the unconditional commitment, then a court shall award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the plaintiff. The bill would require a legislative body that wishes to rescind a commitment to do so by a majority vote of the membership of the legislative body.