BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 435 (Chang) - California Environmental Protection Agency:
Natural Resources Agency: Web casts of public meetings and
workshops
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|Version: June 25, 2015 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 9 - 0, |
| | E.Q. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 24, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 435 would require each department, board,
commission, and office within the Natural Resources Agency
(CNRA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to web
cast all public meetings in a manner that enables listeners and
viewers to ask questions and provide public comment by telephone
or electronic communication. The bill would also require that
recordings be available online for at least three-years.
Fiscal
Impact:
One-time costs of approximately $1.9 million and ongoing costs
of up to $745,000 annually to the General Fund and various
special funds for the boards, departments, and offices of
CalEPA to provide 2-way webcasting and archive all meetings at
"agency sites."
AB 435 (Chang) Page 1 of
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Ongoing costs of approximately $2 million to the General Fund
and various special funds for the boards, departments, and
commissions of the CNRA to contract for 2-way webcasting and
archive all meetings at "agency sites."
Background: The Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act requires that all meetings
of a state body be open and public. The act also requires that
broadcasting and recordings must be allowed to long as they do
not disrupt the meeting.
Proposed Law:
This bill would require each department, board, commission,
and office within the Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to web cast all public
meetings in a manner that enables listeners and viewers to ask
questions and provide public comment by telephone or electronic
communication. The bill would also require that recordings be
available for at least three-years on-line.
This requirement would not apply to public agencies held at
"nonagency sites" that are defined as a location other than
agency headquarters or state government buildings or facilities
where the primary operations of the agency or any of its
departments, boards, or commissions take place.
Staff
Comments: While many departments, boards, commissions, and
offices within the CNRA and CalEPA currently webcast or record
their meetings, none appear to have the regular capacity for
2-way webcasting that allows remote participants to participate
in the meeting in the same manner as a person attending the
meeting physically.
To add this capacity for 2-way webcasting, the agencies would
need significant investments in technology as well as
information technology staff to operate the technology and to
make the recordings available for three-years on their websites
or an increase in contracting costs to provide for these
services.
AB 435 (Chang) Page 2 of
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In order to estimate these costs, both agencies made a number of
assumptions such as the number of public meetings and workshops
annually held excluding those held at "nonagency sites." There
could be some cost reductions depending on the extent that
contracts can be made to support multiple boards, departments,
commissions, and offices.
Staff notes that these costs would be spread over multiple
special funds in addition to the General Fund. A number of the
special funds do not have balances that could support these
additional costs. Depending on how the these accounts are
funded, this bill could result in increased fees, fines, and
taxes, or pressures to do so. In particular, CalEPA identified
the Waste Discharge Permit Fund as fund that would likely see an
increase in fees to cover these costs.
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