By: Marcus Detwiler
On April 9, the Assembly Local Government Committee unanimously passed Assembly Bill 259 (Rubio) to extend a sunset on a Brown Act provision that allows local government board members to remotely participate in meetings under certain, limited conditions.
CSDA Legislative Representative Marcus Detwiler and Three Valleys Municipal Water District Director Jody Roberto provided lead testimony in support of AB 259, which is co-sponsored by their respective organizations. Numerous additional organizations contributed support in-person at the committee hearing and more than 130 special districts submitted a letter of support.
Add Your District to the List of Supports by Authorizing an Automated Form Letter
Assembly Bill 2449 (Rubio, 2022) first established the applicable remote meeting provisions within the Brown Act and will expire at the end of this year if not otherwise acted upon by the State Legislature.
While AB 259 succeeded in progressing to the next stage of the legislative process, it was amended by the committee to simply extend the “AB 2449” remote meeting law rather than eliminating the sunset date altogether as originally introduced. As passed, AB 259 would now push back the current January 1, 2026 sunset date by four years to January 1, 2030.
AB 259 was not the only Brown Act legislation put forward in 2025. Two other measures, Senate Bill 707 (Durazo) and Senate Bill 239 (Arreguín), were introduced with January 1, 2030 sunset dates. These parallel efforts indicated some Legislators, including the Chair of the Senate Local Government Committee, may prefer the incremental approach of extending versus eliminating existing sunset provisions.
In their analysis of AB 259, the Assembly Local Government Committee consultant wrote: “Rather than eliminating these dates, the Committee may wish to consider extending them with a uniform sunset date of January 1, 2030, to maintain consistency and provide more time to evaluate their effects before authorizing them indefinitely.”
AB 259 is not keyed fiscal, meaning it will not require hearing in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, and will next be taken up for vote by the full State Assembly. Should it pass the Assembly, the measure is expected to then be referred to the Senate Local Government Committee.
CSDA has issued a Call-to-Action, encouraging all members to authorize an Automated Form Letter in support of AB 259 through the Take Action page entry on CSDA’s website for AB 259.
#AdvocacyNews
#FeatureNews
#BrownAct