Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act: teleconferencing.

Senator Laird’ s bill would extend and refine California’s open meetings teleconferencing framework, combining the existing access provisions with a staged timeline that shifts in-person requirements over time while preserving remote participation. The measure keeps in place the current open-meeting principles through 2030, clarifies the role of a primary physical meeting location for teleconferences, and adds notice, accessibility, and record-keeping requirements for remote participation, with a transition to stricter in-person quorum and vote practices slated for 2030.

Key provisions include: definitions that distinguish teleconferencing, teleconference locations, and remote locations; a requirement that the agenda and notices identify the primary physical meeting location, with the public able to observe and address the meeting remotely when such access is offered; and a mandate that notices provide detailed information about how the public can access the meeting remotely, including audio or video streams and public comment mechanisms. For remote participation, the bill requires 24-hour public notice identifying any member who will participate remotely (the location of that remote participant need not be disclosed in the notice) and obligates the public access methods to be published on the agenda and at teleconference locations.

The proposal also expands protections and procedures around accessibility and privacy. It requires a process for reasonable modification or accommodation requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act, with a presumption in favor of accessibility, and it directs notice to advertise that accommodation procedure each time meeting access is posted. It limits certain disclosures about remote participation to protect personal information and, in turn, specifies conditions under which a member’s presence at a remote location may be described in public records or notices. For multimember advisory bodies, the bill adds an affirmative requirement to designate a primary physical meeting location in the notice and to list remote participation in meeting minutes.

In terms of timeline and governance, the measure establishes two tracks of change. Until January 1, 2030, the act maintains provisions that require open portions of teleconferenced meetings to be visible and audible to the public and to allow remote observation and participation under specified access methods; beginning January 1, 2026, a more in-person requirement for a quorum at the primary location appears in the reform path, with votes conducted by rollcall during teleconferences. The bill would extend the former provisions to January 1, 2030 and make the latter provisions operative on January 1, 2030, effectively separating a transitional phase from a later, cumulated set of requirements. The legislation concludes with findings asserting the interest in protecting public officials’ private information while maintaining access to public business, and notes the COVID-19-era experience of teleconferenced meetings as a context for these changes.