BILL NUMBER: SB 570	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator DeSaulnier

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2013

   An act to amend Section 54950 of the Government Code, relating to
local government.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 570, as introduced, DeSaulnier. Local government: open
meetings.
   Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires each legislative
body of a local agency to provide notice of the time and place for
its regular meetings and an agenda containing a brief general
description of each item of business to be transacted. The act also
requires that all meetings of a legislative body be open and public,
and that all persons be permitted to attend unless a closed session
is authorized.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to a
provision of the Ralph M. Brown Act.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 54950 of the Government Code is amended to
read:
   54950.   (a)    In enacting this chapter, the
Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards
 and   ,  councils  ,  and the
other public agencies in this  State   state
 exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the
intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their
deliberations be conducted openly. 
   The 
    (b)     The  people of this 
State   state  do not yield their sovereignty to
the agencies  which   that  serve them. The
people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants
the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is
not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed
 ,  so that they may retain control over the instruments
they have created.