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 ****