Wolfe

This appeal requires us to construe a provision of the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act) (Gov. Code, § 54950 et seq.) that prohibits a majority of the members of a local legislative body, when outside a noticed public meeting, from using “direct communication, personal intermediaries, or technological devices ... to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken on an item.” (§ 54952.2, subd. (b).)

The police department of the City of Fremont (City) devised a new policy to govern its response to activated home invasion alarms. Plaintiff J. Dennis Wolfe alleges that, in an effort to preempt any interference by the city council with the department’s implementation of the policy, the city manager met individually with council members to explain the new policy, gamer their support, and secure their agreement not to take any action with respect to the policy. In addition to these meetings, the council members discussed the policy privately among themselves.

After word of the new policy became public, the city council set the matter for formal discussion at a regular meeting. During that meeting, the city manager is alleged to have acknowledged that he met…