Does California's Brown Act apply to a county-level legislative-advocacy group that pools school-district funds to lobby on behalf of those districts?
Question
Is the Executive Committee of the San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools (SANDABS) a "legislative body" within the meaning of the Brown Act?
Conclusion
Yes. SANDABS's Executive Committee is the governing body of an entity created by elected school boards in San Bernardino County to engage in legislative advocacy on their behalf. It is therefore a "legislative body" under Government Code § 54952(c)(1)(A), and its meetings are subject to the Brown Act's open-meeting and public-comment requirements.
Official Citation: 107 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 1
Plain-English summary
San Bernardino County school districts pool dues into a group called SANDABS that hires lobbyists to push their legislative agenda in Sacramento and Washington. SANDABS is run by a 22-member Executive Committee of school board members, district superintendents, and the County Superintendent of Schools. For years, SANDABS posted agendas saying it was not a "legislative body" and refused to take public comment.
After the County District Attorney received a complaint, he asked the AG whether SANDABS's Executive Committee really is exempt. The AG said no.
The Brown Act covers more than just city councils and school boards. Under § 54952(c)(1)(A), any multimember body that governs an "entity" created by an elected legislative body to exercise authority that body could lawfully delegate is itself a legislative body. SANDABS fits: it is a distinct entity (registered as a lobbyist employer with the Secretary of State), it was created and is sustained by the formal annual approvals of member school boards, and its sole job is to do legislative advocacy that each district could otherwise do on its own. That makes the Executive Committee a legislative body under the Act.
The opinion repeatedly stresses that the Brown Act is a remedial statute and is read broadly. Courts have refused to let local agencies dodge open-meeting law by routing decisions through subsidiary "advocacy" or "improvement" entities. SANDABS, the AG concluded, fell on the same side of that line.
What this means for you
If you are a school district trustee or superintendent in California
If your district contributes dues to a county-level or regional legislative-advocacy group whose board is composed of district representatives, that group's governing body is likely subject to the Brown Act. Treat its meetings the way you would any school board meeting: posted agenda 72 hours in advance, public comment opportunity, written minutes, action items voted in open session unless a Brown Act exemption applies. Bylaw language declaring the group "exempt" does not control; the structural test does.
If you are a county district attorney or city attorney
This opinion is your primary AG-level authority for the proposition that legislative-advocacy associations of public agencies are themselves Brown Act bodies, even if their bylaws say otherwise. The four-element test from § 54952(c)(1)(A) (multimember governing body, of an entity, created by an elected legislative body, to exercise lawfully delegable authority) is the framework the opinion uses, anchored to International Longshoremen's, Epstein, McKee, and Joiner.
If you are a journalist or member of the public
If a county-level advocacy or "improvement" entity funded by public dues is closing its meetings or excluding public comment, this opinion gives you a direct citation to push back. The right to comment under § 54954.3 attaches to any body that meets the § 54952(c)(1)(A) test, even where the entity claims to be a private association.
Common questions
Q: What is "quo warranto" or the Brown Act and why does this opinion matter?
The Brown Act is California's open-meetings law for local government. It requires posted agendas, public comment, and open deliberation. Whether a body is "legislative" determines whether the Act applies. This opinion expands the practical reach of "legislative body" to cover regional advocacy groups that public agencies create and fund to lobby on their behalf.
Q: Does the AG's opinion bind SANDABS?
AG opinions are persuasive authority, not binding precedent. But district attorneys can enforce the Brown Act under §§ 54960, 54960.1, and 54960.2. With the AG concluding SANDABS is covered, the District Attorney now has a strong legal basis to require SANDABS to comply, and any Brown Act lawsuit by a member of the public would cite this opinion as authority.
Q: Can a body amend its bylaws to declare itself exempt from the Brown Act?
No. The October 2023 SANDABS bylaw amendment declaring itself non-covered was specifically rejected by the AG. The Brown Act's coverage is structural, not voluntary. Self-declared exemptions do not work.
Q: Does this apply only to school district advocacy groups?
No. The same § 54952(c)(1)(A) analysis would apply to any multi-agency association that meets the four elements: regional government councils, joint advocacy committees, business improvement district associations, public-funded foundations established by local agencies. The opinion explicitly cites Hollywood Business Improvement District (Epstein) and the L.A. Impact police task force (McKee) as parallel examples.
Q: What about closed sessions or attorney-client communications?
The Brown Act allows specified closed sessions (litigation, real property negotiations, personnel). Coverage means the standard exemptions apply, not that every conversation must be public. But the default is open, and exempted closed sessions still must be properly noticed.
Background and statutory framework
Cal. Gov. Code § 54952. Defines "legislative body" for Brown Act purposes. Subdivision (a) covers governing bodies of local agencies. Subdivision (b) covers commissions and committees created by formal action of a legislative body. Subdivision (c)(1)(A), the focus here, covers governing bodies of entities (including private corporations and LLCs) created by an elected legislative body to exercise lawfully delegable authority.
The "played a role" standard. Courts since International Longshoremen's (1999) have held that an elected legislative body need not have directly created the entity. It is enough that the elected body "played a role" in bringing the entity into existence. Epstein (2001) extended this to bodies that pre-existed formal creation, where elected bodies later structured them to take over governmental functions.
Cal. Const. art. I, § 3, subd. (b)(2). The 2004 Proposition 59 constitutional amendment requires statutes affecting public access to "be broadly construed if it furthers the people's right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access." This rule of construction shaped the AG's reading of "create" and "delegate" in § 54952(c)(1)(A).
Cal. Gov. Code § 53060.5. Authorizes school districts to engage in legislative advocacy directly or through a representative association. SANDABS is the vehicle through which San Bernardino County school districts exercise this authority. That delegation is what made § 54952(c)(1)(A) bite.
Citations
- Cal. Gov. Code § 54950 et seq. (Brown Act)
- Cal. Gov. Code § 54952 (legislative body definition)
- Cal. Gov. Code § 53060.5 (school district legislative advocacy)
- Cal. Const. art. I, § 3, subd. (b) (Prop 59 right of access)
- International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union v. Los Angeles Export Terminal, Inc. (1999) 69 Cal.App.4th 287
- Epstein v. Hollywood Entertainment Dist. II Business Improvement Dist. (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 862
- McKee v. Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 354
- Joiner v. City of Sebastopol (1981) 125 Cal.App.3d 799
Source
- Landing page: https://oag.ca.gov/opinions/yearly-index
- Original PDF: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/opinions/pdfs/22-402_0.pdf
Original opinion text
TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
State of California
ROB BONTA
Attorney General
OPINION
of
ROB BONTA
Attorney General
MANUEL M. MEDEIROS
Deputy Attorney General
No. 22-402
February 29, 2024
The HONORABLE JASON ANDERSON, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, has requested an opinion on a question relating to the Ralph M. Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 54950 et seq.).
QUESTION PRESENTED AND CONCLUSION
Is the Executive Committee of the San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools a "legislative body" within the meaning of the Brown Act?
Yes, as the governing body of an entity created by local school districts to engage in legislative advocacy on their behalf, the Executive Committee of the San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools is a legislative body within the meaning of the Brown Act.
BACKGROUND
The San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools (SANDABS) is a legislative advocacy group whose eligible membership includes the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, school districts, and other local educational agencies in San Bernardino County (collectively, the "school districts"). All school districts desiring membership in SANDABS must execute an annual membership agreement and contribute an amount of district funds as "dues," calculated based on average daily attendance. These dues fund the SANDABS program.
The SANDABS program is managed by a 22-member Executive Committee, which includes nine school board trustees and nine district superintendents representing three geographical regions in San Bernardino County. The representative superintendents are selected from among all the county's district superintendents at an annual meeting. The nine school board representatives are selected by the San Bernardino County School Boards Association at an annual meeting. Executive Committee members serve two-year terms.
SANDABS program expenses are budgeted by the County Superintendent and approved by the County Board of Education. The Intergovernmental Relations Department of the County Superintendent's office administers and supports the SANDABS Executive Committee's operations. As mentioned, SANDABS engages in legislative advocacy, and the County Superintendent is the "responsible officer" for SANDABS as a lobbyist employer.
The agenda of every monthly Executive Committee meeting advises the public that they will not be afforded an opportunity to comment, declaring that the Committee is exempt from the open-meeting requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act. On October 11, 2023, the Executive Committee amended its Bylaws to declare itself excluded from coverage under the Brown Act.
The Brown Act governs meetings conducted by "legislative bodies," as defined in Government Code section 54952. The Act imposes an "open meeting" requirement, which mandates (among other things) that "[e]very agenda for regular meetings shall provide an opportunity for members of the public to directly address [a] legislative body on any item of interest to the public, before or during the legislative body's consideration of the item."
Our requestor, the San Bernardino County District Attorney, has jurisdiction to enforce the open-meeting requirements of the Act, and we are informed that he has received a complaint alleging that the Executive Committee has failed to comply with the Act.
ANALYSIS
The Government Code authorizes school districts to engage in legislative advocacy, either directly or through a representative. And a school district is authorized to associate with other districts for the purpose of legislative advocacy, through a representative of the association that they have formed for that purpose. Where, as here, the governing boards of multiple school districts in a county collaborate with the County Superintendent to create an association among themselves, for the purpose of lobbying on behalf of the association's member school districts, we believe that the Brown Act is implicated.
The Brown Act
City councils and school boards fit squarely within the Brown Act's definition of a "legislative body," inasmuch as that definition expressly includes the "governing body of a local agency." The SANDABS Executive Committee differs in several respects from such governing bodies. As we have observed in our published Brown Act guide, however, "[u]nder specified circumstances, meetings of boards, commissions, committees or other multi-member bodies that govern private corporations, limited liability companies or other entities may become subject to the open meeting requirements of the Act." As discussed below, we view SANDABS as such an entity.
The Brown Act did not appear in a legislative vacuum. It was adopted "to ensure the public's right to attend the meetings of public agencies." It was designed to facilitate public participation in local government decisions, and to curb misuse of the democratic process by secret legislation by public bodies. In enacting the statutory scheme, the Legislature declared:
The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.
The SANDABS Executive Committee Is a Legislative Body Within the Meaning of Government Code Section 54952(c)(1)(A).
As relevant here, Government Code section 54952 describes four types of legislative bodies, including:
(c)(1) A board, commission, committee, or other multimember body that governs a private corporation, limited liability company, or other entity that either:
(A) Is created by the elected legislative body in order to exercise authority that may lawfully be delegated by the elected governing body to a private corporation, limited liability company, or other entity.
We will focus here on subdivision (c)(1)(A). The essential elements of this definition are (i) the legislative body must be a multimember governing body of an "entity," which is (ii) created by an elective legislative body, (iii) in order to exercise authority that may lawfully be delegated by the elected governing body to an entity.
- SANDABS Is an "Entity" Within the Meaning of Subdivision (c)(1)(A)
SANDABS is neither a private corporation nor a limited liability company. It is embedded within the County Superintendent's office. It subsists entirely on public funds, which are collected from school districts by the County Superintendent, and are administered by him as part of the county schools' business-services budget. SANDABS is accordingly an "other entity" within the meaning of subdivision (c)(1)(A).
The SANDABS members have demonstrated their intent that SANDABS manifest as an identity distinct from themselves. "SANDABS," as a distinct entity, is registered as a lobbyist employer with the Secretary of State.
- SANDABS Is Created by the Governing Bodies of its Member School Districts
A narrow construction of the word "create," to mean only direct creation by an elected legislative body would invite evasion and subterfuge of the Act's purposes. Nothing in subdivision (c)(1)(A) requires a showing that the "entity" in question was created by a single elected legislative body. Nor does anything in subdivision (c)(1)(A) require a showing that an elected legislative body directly created the entity. Subdivision (c)(1)(A) is implicated if an elected legislative body merely "plays a role" in bringing the subject entity into existence.
In our circumstance, the precise origins of SANDABS appear to be unknown. Notwithstanding the absence of an historic "paper trail," the conclusion that member school boards "played a role" in bringing SANDABS into existence seems unavoidable as its original existence would have depended on its constituent school boards' agreement to participate in its creation, and fund its activities. The SANDABS enterprise depends entirely on the pooling of funds by member school districts. Member school boards annually take formal action to approve entry into the SANDABS annual agreement with the County Superintendent and the concomitant payment of dues.
- SANDABS Is Created In Order to Engage in Lawfully Delegated Legislative Advocacy in the Interest of the Member School Districts
According to its bylaws, SANDABS's sole activity is "influencing the adoption of thoughtful state and federal legislation." To this end, SANDABS contracts with lobbyist firms. This activity is an activity in which school districts are authorized to engage in individually. SANDABS channels this individual authority, held separately by some 30 school districts, to a single entity that is administered by the Office of the County Superintendent, thus enabling educational agencies in San Bernardino County to speak with one "official" voice on legislative matters.
For us to find subdivision (c)(1)(A) applicable, it is not necessary that SANDABS have been delegated final authority, or the totality of a school board's legislative-advocacy authority, such that the school board has no reserved right to lobby for its district. Indeed, subdivision (c)(1)(A) expressly refers to authority that may be lawfully delegated, which may necessitate a less than complete delegation, i.e., less than final authority or less than complete control.
- The SANDABS Executive Committee Is the Multimember Body that Governs SANDABS
The County Superintendent acknowledges that the Executive Committee is the "governing body" that "manages" SANDABS. The Bylaws description of the Executive Committee's responsibilities confirms the County Superintendent's acknowledgment. We therefore conclude that the SANDABS Executive Committee is the "multimember body that governs" SANDABS within the meaning of Government Code section 54952, subdivision (c)(1)(A), and is therefore a "legislative body" within the meaning of that section and subject to the Brown Act's open-meeting requirements.