SECRECY WATCH : Brown Out

A funny thing happened on the way out of Sacramento.

The prolonged state budget compromise finally produced by squabbling state lawmakers includes at least one “spending cut” that not only violates the California Constitution but is downright anti-democratic.

The budget deal whacked out state payments to local governments and other bureaucracies for expenses incurred in posting binding agendas three days before any public meeting.

The mandate is part of the state open-meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act. It was enacted following a stealthy 1985 Los Angeles City Council vote to give council members a 10% pay raise. The most realistic estimate of the mandate’s cost next year is $2.2. million, a drop in the budget bucket compared to the $3.6- billion deficit that provoked last month’s legislative gridlock.

The Legislature’s rush to cut penny-ante mandates didn’t stop with setting aside public notice regulations: It also removed a mandate that local governments set aside time in each meeting for public comments.

Some California court is certain to find this cynical budget cut unconstitutional and reinstate the open-meeting mandates--but only after wasting public dollars on lawsuits to overturn the measure.

In the meantime, watch your wallets. You may never know which locality or policy-making board will be the first to quietly pass its own pay raise, approve a questionable contract, tinker with zoning ordinances or otherwise seize this opportunity to create mischief.