Local government: the Ralph M. Brown Act.

The Ralph M. Brown Act requires that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and public, except that closed sessions may be held under prescribed circumstances. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing for the benefit of the public and the legislative body of a local agency in connection with any meeting or proceeding authorized by law provided that the teleconferenced meeting or proceeding complies with all otherwise applicable requirements and provisions of law relating to a specific type of meeting or proceeding. Existing law, until January 1, 2018, authorizes a health authority that conducts a teleconference meeting to count members who are outside the jurisdiction of the authority toward the establishment of a quorum when participating in the teleconference if at least 50% of the number of members that would establish a quorum are present within the boundaries of the territory over which the authority exercises jurisdiction, and the health authority provides a teleconference number, and associated access codes, if any, that allows any person to call in to participate in the meeting, as specified. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions relating to the establishment of a quorum for teleconferenced meetings of a health authority indefinitely. 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.