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  ****