BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 23
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Cameron Smyth, Chair
AB 23 (Smyth) - As Amended: April 14, 2011
SUBJECT : Local agency meetings: simultaneous meetings:
compensation disclosure.
SUMMARY : Requires a member of a legislative body or the clerk
to announce, prior to holding a meeting simultaneously or in
serial order, during a meeting of a legislative body where the
members of the legislative body constitute at least a quorum of
the legislative body of the other meeting, how much compensation
or stipend the members will receive for the second meeting.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires a member of a legislative body or the clerk to
announce, prior to holding a meeting simultaneously or in
serial order, during a meeting of a legislative body where the
members of the legislative body constitute at least a quorum
of the legislative body of the other meeting, how much
compensation or stipend the members will receive for the
second meeting.
2)Exempts from these provisions compensation for a community
development commission, a redevelopment agency, and a
redevelopment agency and housing authority.
3)Excludes from the definition of compensation and stipend
actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of
official duties, including reimbursement of expenses related
to travel, meals, and lodging.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires, under the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), all
meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and
public and all persons be permitted to attend unless a closed
session is authorized.
2)Defines, for purposes of the Brown Act, local agency to mean a
county, city, whether general law or chartered, city and
county, town, school district, municipal corporation,
district, political subdivision, or any board, commission or
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agency thereof, or other local public agency.
3)Defines, for purposes of the Brown Act, meeting to mean any
congregation of a majority
of the members of a legislative body at the same time and
location, including teleconference, to hear, discuss,
deliberate, or take action on any item that is within the
subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS :
1)The Brown Act requires the meetings of local governments'
legislative bodies to be "open and public," thereby ensuring
people's access to information so they may retain control over
the public agencies that serve them. The Brown Act also
requires legislative bodies to establish the time and place of
regular meetings by adopting an ordinance, resolution, bylaw,
or rule.
Frequently, the legislative body of a city or county also serves
as the legislative body for other municipal legislative
bodies, such as the Board of Trustees for the library and the
planning commission. In the case of the City of Bell, the
members of the city council collected additional compensation
for serving on the Surplus Property Authority and Public
Financing Authority, receiving a stipend as high as $18,895.80
a year for serving on just one of these commissions. So while
the base salary for each City of Bell city councilmember was
$1,800 a year, by serving on multiple city commissions and
boards, these city councilmembers' salaries jumped to nearly
$100,000 a year.
Also, the City of Bell councilmembers frequently would hold the
meetings for these other boards and commissions simultaneously
as city council meetings. Other times the other commission
and board meetings would be convened for just one minute, but
the city councilmembers would collect the full amount of their
pay for that meeting. For instance, meetings for four City of
Bell commissions and boards were held simultaneously for a
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total of one minute on July 31, 2006, netting those
councilmembers a full stipend for all four commissions and
boards.
2)According to the author, the Brown Act is silent on
simultaneous meetings and does not prescribe any requirements
about holding simultaneous or serial meetings when a stipend
or compensation is being paid. The author says, by requiring
a clerk or member of the convened legislative body to announce
before the start of a second meeting the compensation each
member would receive would put the public on notice.
3)AB 23 exempts from these disclosure requirements for
simultaneous or serial meetings the convening of a meeting for
a community development commission, a redevelopment agency,
and a redevelopment agency and housing authority. The
compensation for these legislative bodies are set by statute
and, thus, controlled by the Legislature. The Committee may
wish to consider whether it is prudent to not include all
commissions, boards, and agencies under these disclosure
provisions regardless of who establishes compensation levels
because the burden of announcing compensation for these other
commissions and agencies is minimal.
4)Support arguments: Supporters might argue requiring
compensation and stipends to be publicly announced before
convening a serial or simultaneous meeting increases
accountability and transparency.
Opposition arguments: Opposition might argue there should be no
exceptions when it comes to announcing the compensation or
stipend to be received at serial or simultaneous meetings
because the public should be informed of all forms of
compensation.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
AB 23
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None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Klein Baldwin / L. GOV. /
(916) 319-3958