A watchful eye at OCC

An important story has unfolded on the campus of Orange Coast

College, one noteworthy for the community that sends its children to

OCC and for the student journalists who uncovered it.

Those students, in particular the editor in chief of the campus

newspaper, Mike Billings, and its copy editor, Matt Ballinger,

decided after weeks of investigation that a student budget committee,

charged with doling out more than $700,000 in public funds, had met

three times in closed meetings in violation of the state’s

open-meeting law.

The paper, the Coast Report, detailed these findings in several

stories and an editorial, in which the paper called on the committee

to open its doors and allow its actions to come under public review.

Campus administrators -- who suggest that the students’ motivation

may be less about journalistic principles and more about the reduced

funding the paper received -- said that if the student committee is

in violation of the law, known as the Brown Act, they will open the

meetings. They argue, however, that the law does not cover such

student groups.

“We will do whatever we have to do to exempt [the budget

committee] from the Brown Act,” OCC President Gene Farrell said. “The

reason is to protect the students because we don’t want our students

exposed publicly by anyone in those deliberations. The students can

be pretty critical, and they are not treated like they are in the

outside world. We don’t want these students to take that kind of

criticism. We want to give them a taste of it. We want them to grow

into it.”

That sentiment is understandable, even laudable. But sentiment

cannot supersede law. And judging by the Coast Report’s detailed

coverage and the opinions of lawyers, the Brown Act would apply to

the student budget group, which handles public money.

The act -- named for its sponsor, Assemblyman Ralph M. Brown --

became law in 1953. Over the years, court decisions have augmented

the law, the Legislature has made its own changes, and major

revisions were made in 1994.

Its basic premise is simple: “[B]oards and councils and the other

public agencies in this state exist to aid in the conduct of the

people’s business,” the law reads. “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 their 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.”

That needs to be true, whether in a city hall or at a meeting of

student leaders. It is imperative that the Newport-Mesa community

remember that, and that residents remain vigilant to any violation of

the law.

Those residents should also be thankful that there are watchdogs

in the community such as Billings and Ballinger. Their work helps us

maintain a free and open society and is at the root of what is best

and most important about journalism.