BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2257|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2257
Author: Maienschein (R), et al.
Amended: 6/22/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/29/16
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach,
Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/23/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Local agency meetings: agenda: online posting
SOURCE: Grassroots Lab
DIGEST: This bill requires local agencies to post a link to the
current meeting agenda prominently on their homepage.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes, pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act),
procedures to ensure public access to information maintained
by local agencies and that the decisions made by public
agencies are done in an open and transparent fashion to retain
AB 2257
Page 2
public control over those agencies.
2)Requires a local agency to post an agenda for a regular
meeting of its legislative body at least 72 hours before the
meeting in a location that is freely accessible to members of
the public and on the local agency's Web site, if it has one.
3)Requires local agencies to create an inventory of their
enterprise systems and make it available to the public.
4)Establishes standards for local agency Web sites that bill
themselves as hosting "open data."
This bill:
1)Requires, on and after January 1, 2019, a local agency,
including a city, county, special district, school district,
that has an Internet Web site to post a prominent, direct link
to the agenda for the most current meeting of its legislative
body on the local agency's primary homepage.
2)Prohibits the link from being in a contextual menu, but allows
an additional link to the agenda in a contextual menu.
3)Does not require a local agency to comply with these
requirements if it uses an integrated agenda management
platform that meets all of the following conditions:
a) A direct link to the platform is posted on the local
agency's primary homepage and the link is not in a
contextual menu;
b) All of the local agency's agendas are contained in the
platform;
AB 2257
Page 3
c) The current agenda of the legislative body of the local
agency is the first agenda available at the top of the
platform webpage; and
d) All of the agendas comply with specified requirements
for formatting.
4)Requires agendas to be posted in an open format that is:
a) Retrievable, downloadable, indexable, and searchable by
commonly used internet search applications;
b) Platform independent and machine readable; and
c) Available to the public free of charge and without any
restriction that would impede the reuse or redistribution
of the agenda.
Background
The Brown Act. The Ralph M. Brown Act (Brown Act), first
enacted by the Legislature in 1953, is the set of state laws
which guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in
local legislative bodies' meetings. The Brown Act establishes
procedures to ensure public access to information maintained by
local agencies and that the decisions made by public agencies
are done in an open and transparent fashion to retain public
control over those agencies. Local agencies subject to the
Brown Act include cities, charter cities, counties, school
districts, special districts, and other political subdivisions
of the state.
The Brown Act establishes the presumption that business of local
agencies' legislative bodies must be conducted in open and
public meetings. No action may be taken by secret ballot, and
AB 2257
Page 4
the legislative body must publicly report the action taken and
the votes cast. Among other things, the Brown Act requires a
local agency to post an agenda for a regular meeting of its
legislative body at least 72 hours before the meeting in a
location that is freely accessible to members of the public and
on the local agency's Web site, if it has one (AB 1344, Feuer,
Chapter 692, Statutes of 2011).
Open Data. In recent years, computer technology has advanced to
allow electronic documents to be searched and indexed
electronically. This searchability is enhanced by posting
documents and other data in "open format," meaning one that is
platform independent, machine readable, and made available to
the public without restrictions that would impede the reuse of
that information. The Legislature began considering open data
bills in 2015.
Advocates for government transparency and open data want
legislators to make it easier for search engines, other modern
communications tools, and the public to find and access agendas.
Comments
1)Purpose of the bill. The Legislature initially enacted the
Brown Act in 1953 to ensure open government and transparency
in local decision-making. Over the years, it has been amended
to adapt to changing circumstances and new technologies.
Today, technology has changed what the reasonable expectations
are for access to public meeting documents such as agendas,
and new tools are available to improve transparency. AB 2257
is the next logical step in ensuring the public's access to
meetings. It addresses two key obstacles that hamper access
to local agency agendas. First, it makes agendas much easier
to find on local agency Web sites by requiring a direct link
on the homepage. Just as importantly, AB 2257 requires local
governments to post their agendas in an open format that
search engines like Google and other tools can read and
catalogue. Communication technologies have advanced rapidly;
it's time our local governments caught up.
AB 2257
Page 5
2)Homepage, home rule. Local agencies already face mandates from
the state to ensure that their agendas are publicly posted and
that their meetings are open and accessible. These
requirements can be onerous for small local agencies that
don't have the resources to continually update a Web site.
Furthermore, many local governments that have that capacity
have designed their Web site to meet the expressed needs of
their constituents, who may prize having ready access to
information about permitting or jobs over a link to the most
recent agenda. While well intentioned, AB 2257 imposes a
potentially costly one-size-fits-all requirement on local
governments, to the detriment of the public.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/3/16)
Grassroots Lab (source)
AFSCME
California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce
California Association of Licensed Investigators
California Business Roundtable
California Independent Oil Marketers Association
California League of Food Processors
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California Newspaper Publishers Association
California Professional Firefighters
California Retailers Association
Californians Aware
Data Coalition
El Dorado Local Agency Formation Commission
Industrial Environmental Association
Innovate Your State
National Federation of Independent Business
SEIU California
Sunlight Foundation
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/3/16)
AB 2257
Page 6
California Special Districts Association
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/23/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow,
Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,
Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth,
Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk,
Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Arambula, Eggman, Patterson
Prepared by:Anton Favorini-Csorba / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
8/3/16 19:00:45
**** END ****