By Bruce Wolfe, HANC Board

Alerting you to legislation pending in California that would take the wrong lesson from the pandemic and weaken open-government laws under the guise of increasing remote access to meetings.

We here in San Francisco have the strongest open government law in the state, the Sunshine Ordinance, but there's a basic tenet for all governments:

SEC. 67.1. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

   The Board of Supervisors and the People of the City and County of San Francisco find and declare:

   (a) Government's duty is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public.

This has precedent to mean in-person. The two bills that seek to weaken all public meetings in California are:

AB 1944: A Bill Fundamentally Changing the Brown Act

AB 1773: A Bill Overhauling the Bagley-Keene Act

Both bills seek to overhaul public meetings in California, making it inaccessible to attend in-person.

Please go to the First Amembent Coalition website for more information and updates.

https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2022/05/fac-opposes-legislation-that-would-weaken-public-oversight-of-government-officials-in-california/