With the planned reopening of the State on June 15, many public agencies are asking if the Governor plans to rescind his Executive Orders (N-25-20 and N-29-20) that suspend certain provisions of the Brown Act and allow public agencies to hold teleconferenced or remote meetings. While there has been speculation, unfortunately there has been no indication from the Governor’s office what he plans to do with regard to that issue. The Governor has numerous options on how to proceed. Ideally, the Governor would leave the Executive Orders in place for the foreseeable future, allowing public agencies to consider the local health conditions and allowing agencies to evaluate if it is safe for them to meet in-person, as many public agencies have already begun to do, or continue to meet remotely while ensuring public access to those meetings. Additionally, the Governor could rescind the Executive Orders outright and immediately require public agencies hold in-person public meetings of their governing boards. This would create significant challenges for agencies that have already scheduled remote meetings and for those agencies that are not prepared to hold socially-distanced in-person meetings.
Not knowing how the Governor plans to proceed, CSDA along with several other public agency associations – including the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities – submitted the attached letter asking the Governor, should he decide to rescind the Executive Orders, to provide public agencies with a 30-day transition period to shift from remote to in-person meetings in order to “allow local agencies time to effectively adjust to whatever new state or local public health and safety requirements may exist to ensure a deliberative and collaborative approach to return to in-person public meetings.”
Though the Governor’s exact plans for lifting certain COVID-19 restrictions on June 15 are still unknown, CSDA is actively working to ensure special districts’ ability to effectively deliver critical services to their communities remains a key component of his decision-making process. As details of the Governor’s plans become available, CSDA will provide updates through our various means of communication to our membership.
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