I have an announcement to make.

The California Brown Act 

now allows me to:    

1) answer questions;
2) provide information to the public;
3) or to solicit information from the public. 

Recent changes to the California Brown Act make permanent the allowance by members of legislative bodies to use internet-based social media platforms, “to answer questions, provide information to the public, or to solicit information from the public regarding a matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body provided that a majority of the members of the legislative body do not use the internet-based social media platform to discuss among themselves business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. A member of the legislative body shall not respond directly to any communication on an internet-based social media platform regarding a matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body that is made, posted, or shared by any other member of the legislative body.”  Section 54952.2 of the Government Code, Paragraph b(3).

What does that mean?

It means that the conversations which have traditionally only taken place in formal, short, difficult to attend meetings of legislative bodies are now allowed on websites like this – as long as my colleagues on the legislative body (Sonoma County Behavioral Health Board) do not participate in the conversation.

• They can’t comment on the posts.
• They can’t “like” the posts.
• They can’t drop an imoji on it.
• Like you, they’re invited to read it, but that’s all.

As I am an appointed member of three “legislative bodies” in Sonoma County (Sonoma County Measure O Oversight, Sonoma County Behavioral Health Board, and the Santa Rosa Housing Authority), I can legally utilize the newly-permanent functions enacted by SB707 described above for any of the three legislative bodies.  I will be placing posts on a social media platform to answer questions, provide information to the public, or to solicit information from the public regarding a matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative bodies of which I am a member.  Documents which I place on www.heapa.org are accessible free of any charge, in a PDF format, which allows commenting. 

The website I’m choosing to communicate with the public is HEAPA (Homeless Emergency Assistance Program Association (www.heapa.org) is a 501(c)(3) public benefit nonprofit established several years ago by my friends and I to support homeless in California.  The conversations I post daily on that website will comply with the allowances enacted in the recent Brown Act Update, effective on January 1st of this year. 

I will be sharing with you any and all information from my work on these legislative bodies that I think you ought to know about, answering your questions, and soliciting information from you.  I can then do my job of bringing that feedback from all stakeholders into my participation as a member of the legislative body.   With all that’s changing in the funding designs for local county safety net human service programs, and the California Legislature and voter direction that local Behavioral Health Boards play a central role in planning solutions, I feel that community involvement is crucial to moving forward.  And hopefully you gain a better understanding of what we’re doing and proposing, and have a good chance of impacting it.