In a recent (June 2023) e-mail with Arcata’s Community Development Director David Loya, I quoted to him a key sentence from the very first paragraph of the Brown Act — California’s transparency “sunshine” law. I’ve quoted this to him before, mainly because I do not believe that Arcata’s top planner (although with no planning degree) abides by the law.

In essence, this line of the Brown Act says that it is not okay for a public official — our public official — to tell us some things and not tell us other things. It is against the law for that public official to withhold information from the people. It is not within their rights to decide for the people what they think the people should hear.

Here it that sentence from the Brown Act:

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.

But here’s how it appeared on the City’s website, in a PDF file of letters from the public:

How ironic and humorous it is for the very subject that the letter is discussing — that information is being withheld from the public — has its own words withheld from the public.

No person is to blame for this mangling of State law — a computer did it and nobody noticed. And, yes, a human could fix it. Here’s the section of the document where this error took place, from the letter from Fred Weis to Community Development Director David Loya.

It starts with quotes from the Transportation Safety Committee’s recommendations regarding the L Street Couplet concept.

The original letter was “Fred Weis – June 12, 2023 – David Loya once again dismisses the Transportation Safety Committee’s recommendation: “Removal of couplet in favor of a linear park through the L St corridor” — found here on Arcata1.com.

The follow-up letter, with David Loya’s reply and this funny Brown Act goof, can be seen at “Fred Weis – June 12, 2023 – David Loya dismisses the TSC’s recommendation, Part 2: David Loya’s reply, and a response back to him” — found here on Arcata1.com.

The full opening paragraph of the Brown Act, with this particular sentence highlighted, is:

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. 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.

Visual displays of irony

The truck that needs a tire, on a truck filled with tires.

The rusty paint can that contains a paint that stops rust.

How a passage from California’s Brown Act law appears on Arcata’s website, in a PDF file of letters from the public. The irony is that the Brown Act is designed to make a city’s documents be more transparent and more readable to the public.