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9. Minutes of Meetings Must Be Kept.

The Brown Act does not require that minutes of local agency meetings be kept.
However, other statutory provisions generally require that minutes of open meetings be kept.
For example, Education Code section 35145 requires that minutes be kept for school board
meetings, and Government Code sections 36814 and 40801 require that minutes be kept for city
council meetings. Local agencies have the option of taking minutes for closed session meetings
and if they decide to do such, they are considered confidential and not subject to disclosure.
Closed session minutes, however, may be subject to disclosure if there is a Brown Act violation.

(Government Code §§ 25101, 25102, 25103, 36814, 54957.2; Education Code § 35145; County
of Los Angeles v. Superior Court (2005) 130 Cal.App.4th 1099.)

D. VOTING DETERMINATIONS

Members of the public are entitled to know how each member of a legislative
body voted on action items. In that regard, no legislative body may take action by secret ballot,
whether preliminary or final. This prohibition applies to both open and closed sessions. If it is
not readily apparent from the record how a member voted, the legislative body must publicly
report the action taken and the vote or abstention on that action of each member present for the
action. A roll call vote is not required except for teleconference and emergency meetings or
when otherwise statutorily required but is recommended when it is likely to be difficult to
determine from the record how a particular member voted, or whether a member abstained. It is
advisable to include the vote tally, and any abstentions, as part of the minutes.

(Government Code §§ 54953(c), 54956.5, 54957.1.)

E. DISRUPTION OF MEETINGS

Although the Brown Act provides an opportunity for public comment on any item
within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body, legislative bodies have the right to
control the conduct of their meetings, including placing reasonable time limits on public
comment and determining the order of the agenda.

(Government Code § 54954.3(b); Ribakoff v. City of Long Beach (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 150;
Chaffee v. San Francisco Library Commission (2005) 134 Cal.App.4th 109, 116; Coalition of
Labor, Agriculture & Business v. County of Santa Barbara (2005) 129 Cal.App.4th 205, 209.)

If a person or group of persons disrupt the orderly conduct of a meeting, the
legislative body has a right to order those persons removed from the meeting. If order still
cannot be restored after removal of the individuals disrupting the meeting, members of the
legislative body can order the room cleared and continue with the meeting. Appendix 7 contains
sample guidelines for conducting orderly legislative body meetings.

In some circumstances, an advance restrictive order may be obtained in order to
place limitations on an individual’s attendance at public meetings when there is a credible threat
of violence from that person. Such threats are not constitutionally protected speech.

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