Center for Local Gov. Accountability v. City of San Diego
Annotate this CaseThe City of San Diego and its city council (City) were subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act, including Gov. Code section 54954.3. The Center for Local Government Accountability (Center) filed this litigation to determine whether the City's adherence to a long-standing ordinance providing for only one non-agenda public comment period over the course of its two-day regular weekly meetings violated section 54954.3. The trial court dismissed the Center's complaint after sustaining the City's demurrer to it without leave to amend. The Center appealed. The Court of Appeal concluded, after review of this matter, that the qualifying phrase "subject to Section 54960.2" in section 54960, subdivision (a), applied only to litigation to determine the Brown Act's applicability to past actions. In addition, the Court concluded the City's continued adherence to a long-standing ordinance providing for one non-agenda public comment period over the course of its two-day regular weekly meetings constituted an ongoing or threatened future action, not a past action. Finally, the Court concluded the City's postlitigation adoption of an ordinance providing for a non-agenda public comment period on each day of its two-day regular weekly meetings could moot this action if there was no reasonable expectation the City will adopt another ordinance resuming its former practice. There was a reasonable possibility the Center could amend its complaint to at least state a viable claim for declaratory relief. Consequently, the Court concluded the court erred in sustaining the City's demurrer without leave to amend and dismissing this action. The judgment was reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings.
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