BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1436
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Date of Hearing: January 11, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Anthony Portantino, Chair
AB 1436 (Portantino) - As Amended: January 4, 2010
SUBJECT : Postsecondary educational institutions: meetings:
live audio broadcasts.
SUMMARY : Requires public higher education entities, as
specified, to make available on the Internet a live audio
broadcast of each of its meetings that is open to the public.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Board of Governors of the California Community
Colleges (CCC), the Board of Trustees of the California State
University (CSU), the California Postsecondary Education
Committee (CPEC), and the California Student Aid Commission
(CSAC) and its auxiliary to make available on the Internet a
live audio broadcast of each of its meetings that is open to
the public.
2)Requires that notice of these meetings and links to the live
audio broadcasts be easily accessible via each entity's
Internet Web site.
3)Requests the Regents of the University of California (UC)
comply with these provisions.
4)Provides that technical failures do not constitute a violation
of this section so long as the entity exercised due diligence
in making the live audio broadcast available.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires all meetings of a state body to be open and public
and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of a
state body except as otherwise provided in law (Government
Code Section 11123).
2)Requires every state agency to post on its homepage of its Web
site a link to all notices of public meetings and agendas and
ways in which the public may participate and publicly comment
(Government Code Section 11364).
AB 1436
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background : This bill is identical to AB 224
(Portantino) of 2009, which passed the Assembly 75-0. The
author amended the bill in the Senate to address a separate
issue.
Purpose of this bill : According to the author, California's
open meeting laws are intended to ensure that the public is
informed about and able to participate in its governmental
process. However, due to California's size and complexity, it
is unrealistic to expect the public to be able to travel to
attend these open meetings in person. Thus, alternate means of
participation should be made available to the public, especially
since these boards make decisions that directly affect the
public, including student fee increases, Cal Grant eligibility,
and enrollment restrictions.
Which public entities do this now ? The California Legislature
provides live audio and video webcasts of its open meetings,
including floor sessions and committee hearings. UC, CSU, CCC,
and CPEC also audio webcast their open meetings. CPEC has
webcasted its meetings since 2006, using in-house staff and
equipment. For the past decade, UC has webcast open meetings of
the UC Board of Regents and its committees, using an outside
vendor to provide the service because the UC Regents travel to
different locations for their meetings and also hold
teleconference meetings. CSU recently began webcasting its
Board of Trustee meetings.
Is this bill necessary ? While many of the entities covered by
this bill are already audio webcasting their open meetings, the
author believes this requirement should be a legal requirement
to ensure that these webcasts continue and that the links to the
webcasts are readily accessible.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
AB 1436
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Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960