Is Civic Engagement Illegal?

Old Public Meeting Laws Make Public Participation Out of Bounds. New Model Laws Are Needed.

Everyone knows the standard public meeting in America: formal agenda handouts, official presentations, and three-minute speeches at the microphone for citizens. It’s boring. It doesn’t work. And it’s mysterious—because the past two decades have seen the development of meeting strategies and online tools to change all that, to make meetings truly productive and dynamic. So why don’t American public meetings change?

One major obstacle is legal. The country’s open meetings and records laws include many specific, rigid requirements for how elected officials communicate, meet, and make decisions. For instance, California’s Brown …