AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 6, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 22, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

97

URGENCY STATUTE

Introduced by Senator Durazo

February 19, 2026

An act to amend Section 54953.4 of the Government Code, relating to local government. government, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: no   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a legislative body, as defined, of a local agency be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate.

Existing law, beginning July 1, 2026, requires eligible legislative bodies, as defined, to have in place a system for electronically accepting and fulfilling requests for meeting agendas and documents. Existing law additionally requires these legislative bodies to translate the agenda for each meeting of that body and to reasonably assist members of the public who wish to translate a public meeting or receive interpretation, as specified.

This bill would instead delete the above-described requirements on eligible legislative bodies.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 54953.4 of the Government Code is amended to read:

54953.4.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that public access is necessary for an informed populace. The Legislature encourages local agencies to adopt public access requirements that exceed the requirements of this chapter.

(b) (1) In addition to any other applicable requirements of this chapter, a meeting held by an eligible legislative body pursuant to this chapter shall comply with both of the following requirements:

(A) (i) (I) (ia) All open and public meetings shall include an opportunity for members of the public to attend via a two-way telephonic service or a two-way audiovisual platform, except if adequate telephonic or internet service is not operational at the meeting location. If adequate telephonic or internet service is operational at the meeting location during only a portion of the meeting, the legislative body shall include an opportunity for members of the public to attend via a two-way telephonic service or a two-way audiovisual platform during that portion of the meeting.

(ib) (Ia) On or before July 1, 2026, an eligible legislative body shall approve at a noticed public meeting in open session, not on the consent calendar, a policy regarding disruption of telephonic or internet service occurring during meetings subject to this sub-subclause. The policy shall address the procedures for recessing and reconvening a meeting in the event of disruption and the efforts that the eligible legislative body shall make to attempt to restore the service.

(Ib) If a disruption of telephonic or internet service that prevents members of the public from attending or observing the meeting via the two-way telephonic service or two-way audiovisual platform occurs during the meeting, the eligible legislative body shall recess the open session of the meeting for at least one hour and make a good faith attempt to restore the service. The eligible legislative body may meet in closed session during this period. The eligible legislative body shall not reconvene the open session of the meeting until at least one hour following the disruption, or until telephonic or internet service is restored, whichever is earlier.

(Ic) Upon reconvening the open session, if telephonic or internet service has not been restored, the eligible legislative body shall adopt a finding by rollcall vote that good faith efforts to restore the telephonic or internet service have been made in accordance with the policy adopted pursuant to sub-sub-subclause (Ia) and that the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the public interest in remote public access.

(II) Subclause (I) does not apply to a meeting that is held to do any of the following:

(ia) Attend a judicial or administrative proceeding to which the local agency is a party.

(ib) Inspect real or personal property provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the real or personal property.

(ic) Meet with elected or appointed officials of the United States or the State of California, solely to discuss a legislative or regulatory issue affecting the local agency and over which the federal or state officials have jurisdiction.

(id) Meet in or nearby a facility owned by the agency, provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the facility.

(ie) Meet in an emergency situation pursuant to Section 54956.5.

(ii) If an eligible legislative body elects to provide a two-way audiovisual platform, the eligible legislative body shall publicly post and provide a call-in option, and activate any automatic captioning function during the meeting if an automatic captioning function is included with the two-way audiovisual platform. If an eligible legislative body does not elect to provide a two-way audiovisual platform, the eligible legislative body shall provide a two-way telephonic service for the public to participate in the meeting, pursuant to subclause (I).

(B) (i)All open and public meetings for which attendance via a two-way telephonic service or a two-way audiovisual platform is provided in accordance with subparagraph (A) shall provide the public with an opportunity to provide public comment in accordance with Section 54954.3 via the two-way telephonic or two-way audiovisual platform, and ensure the opportunity for the members of the public participating via a two-way telephonic or two-way audiovisual platform to provide public comment with the same time allotment as a person attending a meeting in person.

(2) (A) An eligible legislative body shall make reasonable efforts, as determined by the legislative body, to invite groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings to attend those meetings, which may include, but are not limited to, all the following:

(i) Media organizations that provide news coverage in the jurisdiction of the eligible legislative body, including media organizations that serve non-English-speaking communities.

(ii) Good government, civil rights, civic engagement, neighborhood, and community group organizations, or similar organizations that are active in the jurisdiction of the eligible legislative body, including organizations active in non-English-speaking communities.

(B) Legislative bodies shall have broad discretion in the choice of reasonable efforts they make under this subparagraph. No action shall be commenced or maintained against an eligible legislative body arising from failing to provide public meeting information to any specific group pursuant to this subparagraph.

(c) For purposes of this section, all of the following definitions apply:

(1) “Eligible legislative body” means any of the following:

(A) A city council of a city with a population of 30,000 or more.

(B) A county board of supervisors of a county, or city and county, with a population of 30,000 or more.

(C) A city council of a city located in a county with a population of 600,000 or more.

(D) The board of directors of a special district that has an internet website and meets any of the following conditions:

(i) The boundaries of the special district include the entirety of a county with a population of 600,000 or more, and the special district has over 200 full-time equivalent employees.

(ii) The special district has over 1,000 full-time equivalent employees.

(iii) The special district has annual revenues, based on the most recent Financial Transaction Report data published by the California State Controller, that exceed four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000), adjusted annually for inflation commencing January 1, 2027, as measured by the percentage change in the California Consumer Price Index from January 1 of the prior year to January 1 of the current year, and the special district employs over 200 full-time equivalent employees.

(2) “Two-way audiovisual platform” means an online platform that provides participants with the ability to participate in a meeting via both an interactive video conference and a two-way telephonic service.

(3) “Two-way telephonic service” means a telephone service that does not require internet access and allows participants to dial a telephone number to listen and verbally participate.

(d) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2026.

(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2030, and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 2.

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act, which amends Section 54953.4 of the Government Code, imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:

This act is necessary to ensure minimum standards for public participation and notice requirements allowing for greater public participation in meetings.

SEC. 3.

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act, which amends Section 54953.4 of the Government Code, furthers, within the meaning of paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution, the purposes of that constitutional section as it relates to the right of public access to the meetings of local public bodies or the writings of local public officials and local agencies. Pursuant to paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution, the Legislature makes the following findings:

This act is necessary to ensure minimum standards for public participation and notice requirements allowing for greater public participation in meetings.

SEC. 4.