Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, October 05, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER ADOPTING A RESOLUTION RE-AUTHORIZING THE CONDUCT OF PUBLIC MEETINGS OF THE CITY'S LEGISLATIVE BODIES VIA REMOTE TELECONFERENCING FOR AN INITIAL 30-DAY PERIOD PURSUANT TO THE BROWN ACT AS AMENDED BY ASSEMBLY BILL 361 (CITY COUNCIL, SUCCESSOR AGENCY, HOUSING AUTHORITY)
Body
I. SUMMARY
A number of laws have changed since the beginning of the COVID pandemic pertaining to the Brown Act as it relates to teleconferenced public meetings, both from Governor Newsom's Executive Orders and recently from the enactment of Assembly Bill 361, which took effect October 1, 2021, allowing continued remote teleconference meetings without traditional Brown Act compliance, provided certain findings can be made related to the ongoing state of emergency and subject to adherence to certain new noticing and public participation requirements.
The City of Carson, as a public agency in California, must now invoke and adhere to AB 361 and its modifications on certain elements of remote public meetings, or else revert to traditional Brown Act compliance. The major change associated with continuing remote meetings under AB 361 is that the public must now be allowed to make comments in real-time during the public comment period, either telephonically or electronically (such as by Zoom). No physical location for public comment need be provided. Considering the implementation of AB 361, public comments for City Council meetings will be received through live call-in only in lieu of receiving written public comments prior to the meeting. This change has been incorporated starting with the October 5, 2021 City Council meeting.
The other major change is that all public agencies, if they want to continue to conduct public meetings remotely, must adopt a resolution every 30 days making the findings of necessity to do so and affirming the measures in place to allow remote public comments by the public.
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