CA SB 707

Title: Open meetings: meeting and teleconference requirements.
Author: Jesse Arreguin

Summary
SB 707, as amended, Durazo. Open meetings: meeting and teleconference requirements. (1) Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a legislative body, as defined, of a local agency be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate.This bill would, until January 1, 2030, require an eligible legislative body, as defined, to comply with additional meeting requirements, including that, except as specified, all open and public meetings include an opportunity for members of the public to attend via a 2-way telephonic service or a 2-way audiovisual platform, as defined, and that the eligible legislative body take specified actions to encourage residents to participate in public meetings, as specified.(2) Existing law defines “legislative body” for purposes of the act to mean, among other things, a commission, committee, board, or other body of a local agency, whether permanent or temporary, decisionmaking or advisory, created by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body. Existing law specifies that “legislative body” does not include advisory committees, composed solely of the members of the legislative body that are less than a quorum of the legislative body, except for specified standing committees of a legislative body.This bill would revise and recast the above-described definition of a legislative body and would specify that advisory committees with a continuing subject matter jurisdiction or a fixed meeting schedule, as specified, are legislative bodies.Existing law prohibits a majority of the members of a legislative body, outside a meeting authorized by the act, from using a series of communications of any kind to discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item of business that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. Existing law defines “meetings” for these purposes to mean any congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative body at the same time and location, as specified, to hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body. Until January 1, 2026, existing law excepts from the prohibition a member engaging in separate conversations or communications outside of a meeting with any other person using an internet-based social media platform for specified purposes, provided, among other things, that a majority of the members do not use the internet-based social media platform to discuss among themselves business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body.This bill would make the above-described exception related to communications on an internet-based social media platform applicable indefinitely. (3) Existing law requires a legislative body, prior to taking final action, to orally report a summary of a recommendation for a final action on specified forms of compensation for a local agency executive, as defined, during the open meeting in which the final action is to be taken.This bill would also require the legislative body to make that oral report, as provided above, prior to taking final action on those specified forms of compensation for an unrepresented employee of the local agency.(3)(4) Existing law requires a legislative body of a local agency or its designee, at least 72 hours before a regular meeting, to post an agenda that meets specified requirements, including that the agenda contain a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting, as specified.This bill would require the agenda for each meeting of an eligible legislative body, as defined, to be translated into all applicable languages. The bill would define “applicable languages” to mean languages spoken jointly by 20% or more of the population in the city or county in which the eligible legislative body is located that, among other things, speaks

Status
In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.

Bill Documents
CA SB 707 - 05/29/25 - Amended Senate
05/29/25 - CA SB 707 (05/29/25 - Amended Senate)