BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 246|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 246
Author: Bradford (D)
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE : 7-0, 5/15/13
AYES: Wolk, Knight, Beall, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Hernandez, Liu
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-5, 4/15/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Local government: open meetings
SOURCE : County of Los Angeles
DIGEST : This bill includes the Governor in the list of
individuals and agencies with which a local agency's legislative
body may meet in closed session pursuant to the 'public
security' exemption of the state's open meetings law.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Requires, under the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), each
legislative body of a local agency to provide the time and
place for holding regular meetings and requires that all
meetings of a legislative body be open and public and all
persons be permitted to attend unless a closed session is
authorized.
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2.Defines, for purposes of the Brown Act, a 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.
3.Requires, at least 72 hours before a regular meeting, the
legislative body of the local agency, or its designee, to post
an agenda containing a brief general description of each item
of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting,
including items to be discussed in closed session.
4.Authorizes a legislative body of a local agency to meet in
closed session for specified matters related to litigation,
real estate negotiations, personnel issues, labor
negotiations, certain disciplinary matters related to schools,
grand jury testimony, license applicants with criminal
histories, multi-jurisdictional drug cases, hospital peer
reviews and related trade secrets, and threats to public
security.
5.Authorizes the legislative body to hold closed sessions with
the Attorney General, district attorney, agency counsel,
sheriff, or chief of police, or their respective deputies, or
a security consultant or a security operations manager, on
matters posing a threat to the security of public buildings, a
threat to the security of essential public services, including
water, drinking water, wastewater treatment, natural gas
service, and electric service, or a threat to the public's
right of access to public services or public facilities.
This bill:
1.Includes the Governor, in the list of individuals and agencies
with which, under the Brown Act, the legislative body may meet
in closed session on matters posing a threat to the security
of public buildings, services and facilities, and public
access to public services or facilities.
2.Makes legislative findings and declarations relative to the
public's right of access to the meetings of public bodies and
the necessity of this bill to the health and safety of the
people of California.
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3.Makes clarifying and non-substantive amendments.
Background
The California Emergency Services Act gives the Governor broad
authority to suspend statutes, orders, rules, or regulations
during a state of emergency where the Governor determines that
those provisions would hinder any response to that emergency.
In September 2011, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
met in closed session with the Governor to discuss the
implications of AB 109 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 15,
Statutes of 2011), also known as public safety realignment
legislation. The meetings were intended to explore the public
safety implications of realignment for the County of Los
Angeles. In response, community organizations filed suit
alleging that the meetings violated the Brown Act.
A subsequent review by the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office found that the circumstances of the meetings
did not meet the limited criteria outlined in the Brown Act for
holding a closed meeting on threats to public security. In
response, the Board of Supervisors agreed to restrict its use of
closed sessions and to release a transcript of the meetings in
question.
The County of Los Angeles notes that the Brown Act includes
provisions for elected bodies of local agencies to meet in
closed session with the Attorney General, district attorney,
agency counsel, sheriff, chief of police, or their respective
deputies, a security consultant or security operations managers
on matters of public security. But, those provisions do not
include the Governor, despite the public safety authority of
that office.
Prior Legislation
This bill is substantially similar to AB 1736 (Smyth, 2012),
which failed passage on the Senate Floor.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
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SUPPORT : (Verified 5/20/13)
County of Los Angeles (source)
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/20/13)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
Californians Aware
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 69-5, 4/15/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Conway, Dahle, Daly,
Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia,
Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue,
Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Torres, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk,
Williams, John A. Pérez
NOES: Ammiano, Buchanan, Chávez, Cooley, Maienschein
NO VOTE RECORDED: Donnelly, Harkey, Lowenthal, Mansoor, Yamada,
Vacancy
AB:ej 5/23/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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