SEC. 67.23. PUBLIC REVIEW FILE - POLICY BODY COMMUNICATIONS.
§ 67.23
The Board of Supervisors and other city boards and commissions must maintain a publicly accessible file of letters, memoranda, and communications between the clerk and a quorum of the body about matters on or likely to be on the agenda within 30 days, excluding commercial solicitations and records exempt under state public-records law. Communications from the last three business days must be kept in the office in chronological order; after two full days, documents may be moved to a monthly file. Multi-page reports need not be filed if their transmittal letter is included.
City boards and commissions must keep their communications open to the public. The clerk has to maintain a file that anyone can look at during office hours. The file should include copies of letters and memos that the clerk and board members sent to each other about items that were recently on the agenda or will be soon—unless they're sales pitches or protected by privacy laws. Communications from the most recent three business days stay in an easy-to-find place in the office in order by date. After two days, older documents can be moved to a monthly file. If a big report comes with a cover letter, you only need to keep the cover letter on file.
- Complex:The section involves multiple filing procedures (current vs. older documents), cross-references to the California Public Records Act and Section 67.24, and conditional language about what must or may be filed, making it harder to follow than needed.
- Could be simpler:The distinction between the three-business-day window, the two-full-day removal threshold, and the 30-day calendar window could be explained more clearly with a simple timeline rather than embedded in conditional clauses.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
SEC. 67.23. PUBLIC REVIEW FILE – POLICY BODY COMMUNICATIONS.
(a) The clerk of the Board of Supervisors and the clerk of each board and commission enumerated in the charter shall maintain a file, accessible to any person during normal office hours, containing a copy of any letter, memorandum or other communication which the clerk has distributed to or received from a quorum of the policy body concerning a matter calendared by the body within the previous 30 days or likely to be calendared within the next 30 days, irrespective of subject matter, origin or recipient, except commercial solicitations, periodical publications or communications exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.) and not deemed disclosable under Section 67.24 of this article.
(b) Communications, as described in subsection (a), sent or received in the last three business days shall be maintained in chronological order in the office of the department head or at a place nearby, clearly designated to the public. After documents have been on file for two full days, they may be removed, and, in the discretion of the board or commission, placed in a monthly chronological file.
(c) Multiple-page reports, studies or analyses which are accompanied by a letter or memorandum of transmittal need not be included in the file so long as the letter or memorandum of transmittal is included.
(Added by Ord. 265-93, App. 8/18/93; amended by Proposition G, 11/2/99)