An old man walked with a familiar gait up to the dais of the Water District boardroom.
“How’s the family Bob? Did you go up to Half Moon Bay again for the Holidays?”
“Good Joe thanks for asking and yes. Listen let’s catch up after the meeting. We have a packed agenda with an important closed session item so let’s get going.”
“Sure sounds good. By the way my techie nephew got me one of those newfangled brain-reading helmets. It’s supposed to give you personalized information to keep the ole noggin’ on track.”
Bob laughed then sighed inside. He respected the hell outta Joe and it pained him to no ending knowing his old mentor suffered from early onset Alzheimers.
“All good sir. All good. Now please take your seat so I can call this meeting to order.”
Bob led the board through the consent calendar and a full though fairly mundane agenda. He then ended the public meeting and started closed session. It would be one for the ages. A private Upper Colorado Basin water venture backed by a one Daedulus private equity group was proposing a virtual exchange of over half a million acre feet, enough water to satiate the projected growth in Los Angeles for the next decade. After a lengthy discussion, their deliberations ended with a 3-2 vote against the project.
But actually that was just the beginning. A public affairs consultant working for Daedulus attended the meeting and remembered the rather remarkable looking helmet on board member Joe McMulligan’s patch of snow white hair.
Two weeks later a rather curious email would show up in the District’s public information inbox.
“They want what!?”
General Manager Bob Millhand sighed inside. He felt for his old friend Joe and also the District’s General Counsel tasked with briefing the boardmember. The law was clear though. All electronic communications during a board meeting were subject to disclosure. He hated that Daedalus was using this obsolete tool in such a twisted way. But they were within their rights. Part of him even respected the cutthroat relentlessness with which they pursued a lead into what caused a no vote. Still, Daedalus would get the logs.
Coda: This post extrapolates only slightly from current technology and law. Kernel provides a non-invasive helmet that tracks brain activity. Existing laws like the California Public Records Act and Brown Act have already resulted in quirky unintended consequences with new technologies, like marathon public comment sessions and zoom bombings. Meanwhile, new protocols for utilizing digital tools in private sector board meetings are increasingly becoming standard practice, highlighting the upside to modernizing public agency rules.
