Legislative meetings: recording and transcription.

Existing law requires, except as specified, all meetings of a house of the Legislature or a committee thereof to be open and public. Existing law, the Legislative Open Records Act, provides that legislative records are open to inspection and any person has a right to inspect any legislative record, except as specified. Existing law requires the Legislative Counsel to make certain information available to the public in electronic form regarding each bill in each current legislative session, including, among other things, the bill history and status, all bill analyses prepared by legislative committees, and all vote information. This bill would require each house of the Legislature to make an audio, or audio and video, recording of every open and public meeting of a house of the Legislature or a committee thereof, and would require those recordings to be transcribed. The bill would specify that the transcriptions shall be legislative records for purposes of the Legislative Open Records Act and require that the Legislative Counsel make the transcriptions available to the public in electronic form. The bill would require each house of the Legislature to make the transcriptions in a manner that utilizes the best available technology in audio transcription software in order to minimize costs.