Title
Overview of Brown Act Changes (SB 707) and Adopt a Resolution to Approve the City Council Meeting Disruption and Meeting Language Access Policies and to Add Chapters 14 and 15, Respectively, to the City of San Leandro Administrative Code
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommend the City Council adopt the resolution approving the City Council Meeting Disruption and Language Access Policies and adding Chapters 14 and 15, respectively, to the San Leandro Administrative Code.
BACKGROUND
Senate Bill ("SB") 707 updated the Brown Act's legal requirements to expand public access to meetings and encourage transparency. To maintain compliance with the Brown Act, Staff developed the following two policies for the City Council's adoption. After adoption, these policies will become part of the San Leandro Administrative Code.
Meeting Disruption Policy
SB 707 imposes a requirement for eligible legislative bodies, in this case only the San Leandro City Council, to adopt a meeting disruption policy if a technological disruption (such as an internet outage) disrupts the public's ability to participate in a City Council meeting remotely.
The proposed policy establishes procedures to maintain public access and participation during City Council meetings in the event of a disruption to remote viewing or public comment, consistent with Brown Act requirements under SB 707. If a disruption occurs, the presiding officer must announce the issue and the meeting will go into recess, which could go for up to one hour while the City makes good faith efforts to restore service or fix the issue causing the remote viewing and participation disruption. If service is restored before the one-hour mark, the meeting may resume. If service cannot be restored, the City Council may continue the meeting without remote viewing or public comment only after adopting, by roll-call vote, certain findings. Under the proposed policy, the disruption, duration, and response actions must b...
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