Thousand Oaks city staff is reluctant to say what will be on the City Council agenda any earlier than the state requires.

According to the Ralph M. Brown Act, a state law that governs public access to local government, the city must post an agenda at least 72 hours before a regular meeting.

The law doesn’t prohibit the city from posting it sooner or letting reporters know what’s tentatively scheduled so that residents can be better informed.

When the city was asked for information about staff recommendations and department reports scheduled for its next agenda, spokesperson Andrew Powers said the information couldn’t be released because “many of the issues dealt with in staff reports are complex and fluid.”

Except for public hearings, the City Council agenda isn’t released before Fridays. Department reports dealing with issues vital to the city were expected to be heard by the City Council this month, but without knowledge of specific dates, citizens can’t make arrangements to attend meetings or to watch them on the local access cable channel.

“As we’ve discussed before, the agenda with supplemental staff reports are finalized and delivered to City Council on Thursday evenings. They are generally not completed until that day,” Powers said.

Issues that might appear on the agenda include cuts to the budget to keep it balanced after state cutbacks and a review of Ventura County Fire Department’s response to the City Council about a consultant’s finding that the city of Thousand Oaks overpays $6 million for fire protection services.

Simi Valley Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan said city staff there “will definitely give out all the information they have available as a service to the public” but cannot reveal staff recommendations in advance.

“If we can give it out, we do. We can give general background information about what is on the agenda as soon as we know it,” she said.

Simi Valley’s City Council meets on Mondays. Its agenda is officially released the previous Friday, but general information about items in the consent calendar and some department reports can be released earlier, she said.

“It helps the public to know what’s going on. There is no disadvantage to providing this information,” she said.

Public hearing notices are required by law to be publicized 14 days in advance.

In those notices, citizens are invited to attend and participate in the decisions of local government.