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On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the COVID-19-related state of emergency proclaimed back in March 2020 would come to an end, terminating at the end of February 2023. The state of emergency remained in place throughout the pandemic, fostering the state’s response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and serving as the basis for several initiatives related to public health. Now, with the state of emergency ending, any current initiatives relying on the active state of emergency for their operation will cease to remain in effect. Importantly, this will include local agencies who transition to remote meetings using the framework enacted by the passage of Assembly Bill 361 (R. Rivas, 2021); after February 28, 2023 these agencies will no longer be able to cite the COVID-19 state of emergency as the basis for their AB 361 resolutions, meaning that these agencies will be required to hold in-person meetings, remote meetings under the typical procedures (i.e., the procedures as they generally existed before the pandemic), or, after January 1, 2023, they may opt to use the procedures created by Assembly Bill 2449 (Rubio, 2022). While the provisions of AB 361 themselves technically remain in law until the end of 2023, those provisions require an active state of emergency for their operation.

The relevant text of AB 361 can be found at California Government Code section 54953 (e)(1), which reads as follows (emphasis added): 

(e) (1) A local agency may use teleconferencing without complying with the requirements of paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) if the legislative body complies with the requirements of paragraph (2) of this subdivision in any of the following circumstances:

The reference “paragraph (3) of subdivision (b)” is to the typical Brown Act requirements (e.g., that meeting agenda notices be posted at each remote meeting site). “[P]aragraph (2)” refers to the procedural requirements of AB 361-compliant meetings.

Agencies currently relying on AB 361’s provisions for their remote meetings should begin preparations for the transition to alternative meeting procedures. Those agencies looking to continue meeting remotely under non-emergency circumstances should become familiar with the terms of AB 2449; CSDA has previously written about AB 2449 in an earlier eNews article. Agencies may wish to collaborate with their colleagues and share plans and preparations for adjusting their meeting procedures on CSDA’s Open Forum.