Placing Document in Public Office when that Office is Closed does not make Document "Available for Public Inspection"

The Third Appellate District reversed in part a judgment. In the published portion of its opinion, the court held that Placer County violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by failing to make a document available for public inspection at the same time that it was distributed to the members of the county's board of supervisors.

In 2016, Placer County approved a project to develop a resort on about 94 acres near Lake Tahoe. Sierra Watch filed suit challenging that decision, arguing, among other things, that the county violated Gov. Code §54957.5 by failing to make available for public inspection a memorandum distributed to the members of the county board of supervisors on the eve of the board's noticed public meeting regarding the project. The memorandum, which was emailed to the county clerk at 5:36 p.m., was forwarded to all board members a few minutes later. At about the same time, the clerk placed a copy of the memorandum in the clerk's office, which was then already closed for the day and would not reopen until 8:00 a.m. the following morning. Sierra Watch alleged that the clerk's actions violated §54957.5, which requires, in the event a county distributes to its board of supervisors any writing pertinent to an upcoming board meeting less than 72 hours before that meeting, that the county also make that writing "available for public inspection" at a county office "at the time the writing is distributed" to the board.

The trial court rejected Sierra Watch's claim, finding that the clerk complied with §54957.5 by placing the memorandum in the clerk's office, even though that office was closed at the time.

The court of appeal reversed, holding that placement of the memorandum in a closed public office, where it would not be available for public inspection until the following day, did not comply with §54957.5's requirement that it be made available for public inspection at the same time that it was distributed to the board. The plain language of §54957.5 required that the memorandum actually be made available for public inspection. Placing a document in an office that is closed to the public does not accomplish that objective. Because the memorandum was not made available to for public inspection "at the time" it was distributed to the board, the county violated §54957.5.

Sierra Watch v. Placer County