TRANSPARENCY CONCERNS

public comment and meetings may not have been

Snider held a series of explanatory presentations and public meetings throughout the month of October.

One webinar which took place on October 14 was recorded and posted to YouTube and on the California Truth & Healing Council website. The video ends after Snider indicates that the public comment portion of the meeting would begin.

A California Public Records Act Request was filed and requested the full October 14.

The Governor's legal unit responded with a link to the meeting that did not include public comment.

Responding to a follow up request, David Sapp, Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary wrote "We received your follow up request for access to additional recordings. Please be advised we have provided links to all recordings that exist for the referenced sessions.”

The Bagley-Keene Act stipulates that a public meeting is beholden to the act only when it has three or more members of the state-body. Since the council had not yet been convened, it may not be held to the legal stipulations of the Bagley-Keene Act.

The situation nevertheless caused discomfort for participants of that meeting like Sullivan.

She voiced her thoughts on it during the December 4 meeting.

“I think my main contention today I wanted to bring to the committee's attention was the unavailability of the last public comment that I was part of, …” Sullivan said. “Public comment that I made, as well as other community members made, is not available right now online. So I'm worried about that. That doesn't bode well for me. Someone talked about mistrust of state processes. So I'd like not only for that to be addressed, either today or at another time, but that that doesn't happen moving forward. Because as Indigenous Peoples, we were using that public comment period to talk about our stories and our feelings. I feel like that isn't being represented right now, in the public comment, where other people can access that.”