BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Lois Wolk, Chair
BILL NO: SB 475 HEARING: 8/8/12
AUTHOR: Wright FISCAL: No
VERSION: 6/7/12 TAX LEVY: No
CONSULTANT: Weinberger
BROWN ACT AND TELECONFERENCES
Allows a local health authority to fulfill the Brown Act's
teleconference meeting quorum requirement by counting board
members located outside of its jurisdiction.
Background and Existing Law
The Ralph M. Brown Act requires the meetings of local
governments' legislative bodies to be "open and public,"
thereby ensuring people's access to information so that
they may retain control over the public agencies that serve
them. Local officials must post agendas 72 hours before
their regular meetings and cannot discuss or make decisions
about topics that are not on the agenda.
The Brown Act allows local governments' governing bodies to
use teleconferencing for their meetings as long as they
post agendas at all teleconference locations, take all
votes by rollcall, and accommodate persons wishing to
address the governing body. Each teleconference location
must be identified in the notice and agenda of the meeting
and must be accessible to the public. During a
teleconference, at least a quorum of the members of the
governing body must participate from locations within the
boundaries of the local government's jurisdiction (SB 139,
Kopp, 1998). Before 2009, a different quorum requirement
applied to specified local health authorities.
In the early 1990s, the Wilson Administration sought to
control the costs of Medi-Cal through a more comprehensive
program of managed care. As part of that effort, the
Legislature established the "Two-Plan Model" in nine
counties. Those counties must enroll Medi-Cal
beneficiaries in one of two managed care plans. One plan
is a commercial plan selected by the State Department of
Health Services, the other a locally sponsored public plan,
SB 475 -- 6/7/12 -- Page 2
called a Local Initiative health plan, with greater
obligations to contract with safety net providers. The
plans compete to foster more efficient services for the
recipients.
The Local Initiative health plans serve more than 1.7
million Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and Healthy Kids
beneficiaries throughout California. The plans in eight
counties, Alameda, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San
Bernardino, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Joaquin,
are public, not-for-profit organizations with governing
boards that include doctors, hospitals, labor unions
Medi-Cal beneficiaries, consumer advocates, county
supervisors, community clinics and county health
departments. In Contra Costa County, the Contra Costa
County Board of Supervisors governs the Local Initiative
health plan but has an advisory committee offering input
and advice on policy matters. The Local Initiative health
plans' governing boards are subject to the Brown Act.
These governing boards range in size from nine to nineteen
members and sometimes include persons living or working
outside of the board's jurisdiction. Because some of these
boards found it difficult to meet quorum requirements
either in person or through teleconferencing, the
Legislature provided an exception to the Brown Act's quorum
requirement for health authorities conducting
teleconference meetings (AB 1438, Salinas, 2005).
Specifically, the Salinas bill allowed health authority
board members who are participating in a teleconference
meeting from outside the jurisdiction of the authority to
be counted to establish a quorum if:
At least 50 percent of the number of members needed
for a quorum are present within the boundaries of the
authority's jurisdiction, and
The health authority provides a teleconference
number to the public that allows any person to call in
to participate in the meeting, and
The health authority identifies the teleconference
number in the notice and agenda of the meeting.
While the exception enacted by the Salinas bill remains in
statute, a sunset date made its provisions ineffective in
2009. Local health authority officials want the
Legislature to restore the exemption to the Brown Act's
SB 475 -- 6/7/12 -- Page 3
quorum requirement for health authorities conducting
teleconference meetings.
Proposed Law
Senate Bill 475 deletes the 2009 sunset date enacted by the
2005 Salinas bill. By deleting that date, SB 475
reestablishes the statute that allows health authority
board members who are participating in a teleconference
meeting from outside the authority's jurisdiction to be
counted towards a quorum under specified conditions. SB
475 enacts a new sunset date, specifying that the statute
will become ineffective on January 1, 2018.
State Revenue Impact
No estimate.
Comments
1. Purpose of the bill . Local Initiative health plans'
governing boards consist of doctors, hospitals, Medi-Cal
beneficiaries, consumer advocates, county supervisors,
community clinics, and county health departments. Most of
these representatives have fulltime jobs outside of their
board duties and very demanding schedules. Even with
regularly scheduled monthly or bi-monthly meetings some
boards find it hard to meet quorum requirements. SB 475
simply restores an exception that was in effect from 2006
to 2009 which gave local health authorities' governing
boards more flexibility in fulfilling the quorum
requirement for teleconference meetings. By allowing half
of the members necessary to establish a quorum to call in
from outside the board's jurisdiction during teleconference
meetings, SB 475 makes it easier for health plan boards to
meet and conduct business on a regular basis.
2. Appoint someone else . The criteria for appointing
members to a Local Initiative health plan's governing board
aren't all that strict. The members who aren't county
managers or county supervisors can come from a wide variety
of education, health, and social services groups.
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Sometimes the most qualified individuals are also the least
available. However, there are many qualified people who
can serve on these boards if only the county supervisors
would look beyond the most obvious choices. Instead of
asking legislators to amend the Brown Act to accommodate
well-intentioned, but very busy people, maybe county
supervisors should recruit appointees who are better able
to serve.
3. Findings and declarations . The California Constitution
requires that new statutes which limit public access to
meetings of public bodies be adopted with findings
demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and
the need for protecting that interest (Proposition 59,
2004). SB 475 contains legislative findings and
declarations regarding the necessity of limiting the
public's right of access to local health authorities'
meetings.
4. Gut-and amend . When the Senate passed SB 475 on May 9,
2011, the bill revised statutes governing local
governments' public-private infrastructure agreements. The
May 22, 2012 Assembly amendments deleted that language and
converted the bill into a measure allowing a health
authority to count board members located outside of its
jurisdiction towards the Brown Act's quorum requirement.
Because this topic was never heard in the Senate, the
Senate Rules Committee has referred the amended bill under
Senate Rule 29.10 to the Senate Governance and Finance
Committee for a hearing on the Assembly's amendments. At
its August 8 hearing, the Committee has four choices:
Send the bill back to the Senate Floor,
recommending concurrence.
Send the bill back to the Senate Floor,
recommending nonconcurrence.
Send the bill back to the Senate Floor, without
recommendation.
Hold the bill.
Assembly Actions
Assembly Local Government Committee: 9-0
Assembly Floor: 76-0
SB 475 -- 6/7/12 -- Page 5
Support and Opposition (8/2/12)
Support : L.A. Care Health Plan; Local Health Plans of
California.
Opposition : Unknown.