Issue 166 - December 2025
LEGAL MATTERS
New Legislation Makes Changes to California’s Transparency and Ethics Laws
SB 707 Provides Significant Changes to the Brown Act
SB 707, signed into law on October 3, 2025, proposes the most extensive modernization of the Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 54950 et seq.) in years, introducing sweeping changes designed to strengthen public participation and expand remote teleconferencing access. While aiming to improve transparency and engagement in public meetings, the bill also presents local agencies with important considerations regarding implementation logistics and resource planning. The bill primarily goes into effect on January 1, 2026, with some provisions going into effect on July 1, 2026.
Mandatory Brown Act Distribution
SB 707 amends section 54952.7 to mandate that a local agency must provide a copy of the Brown Act to any person who is elected or appointed to serve as a member of the legislative body of the agency. Previously, the distribution was permissive and limited to specified persons.
Teleconferencing as a Reasonable Accommodation
SB 707 adds a new subdivision (c) to section 54953 to expressly articulate that legislative body members may participate by teleconference as an accommodation for a disability. The member must participate using both audio and visual technology and must disclose if another adult is in the room with them, and the general nature of that person’s relationship with the member; the teleconferencing member’s participation counts towards a quorum at the same physical location as the members participating in person.
Expanded Teleconferencing Requirements
SB 707 expands and reorganizes the provisions relating to teleconferencing. The provisions for the “just cause” basis for remote legislative body meeting participation initially introduced in 2022 via AB 2449 are now set forth in section 54953.8.3. The bill extends the sunset for these “just cause” provisions through December 31, 2029, and the definition of “just cause” now includes certain prior bases for associated “emergency circumstances,” such as caregiving, illness, family medical emergencies, and military service. “Emergency circumstances” will now be included in the definition of “just cause.”
Remote Access and Multilingual Outreach Requirements
The bill adds a new section 54953.4, which imposes certain requirements on eligible legislative bodies from July 1, 2026 through December 31, 2029. Specifically, it requires eligible legislative bodies to offer public remote access to open meetings via telephonic or audiovisual platforms, and recess meetings for at least one hour to restore service if remote access fails. “Eligible legislative body” is defined in the bill to include city councils and county boards of cities/counties with populations of 30,000 or more, city councils in counties with 600,000 or more people, and certain large special districts—those with substantial populations, employees, or revenues. These eligible legislative bodies must translate meeting agendas and participation instructions into applicable languages (those spoken by at least 20 percent of the relevant population with limited English proficiency), provide a multilingual, accessible public webpage explaining comment procedures and meetings, and assist with interpretation requests.
Special Meetings Requirements
SB 707 modifies section 54956, regarding special meetings, to expand the 24-hour posting and distribution requirements to all legislative bodies by removing prior exemptions for certain legislative bodies. It also expands the prohibition on calling special meetings to consider local agency salaries or compensation for local agency executives to also include those for legislative bodies themselves.
Authority to Remove Disruptive Participants
The bill amends section 54957.95 to extend the authority of a presiding legislative body member to remove a person for disrupting a teleconferenced meeting.
The changes made by SB 707 are significant. Given the complexities of the changes, there is likely to be clean-up legislation next year to clarify some of the provisions.
Noteworthy Changes to the California Political Reform Act
The Governor signed a number of bills amending the Political Reform Act: SB 42, and 852 and Assembly Bills (“AB”) 953 and 1286. AB 1286 adds a financial interest (arrangement for prospective employment) that must be reported on the Form 700, AB 953 prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to elections, and SB 42 enacts the California Fair Elections Act of 2026, subject to voter approval.
SB 42.
The bill enacts the California Fair Elections Act of 2026, to be effective only if approved by the voters on November 3, 2026, and if so approved, lifts the prohibition against the expenditure of public funds for the purpose of seeking elective office and would allow such expenditures for citizen-funded election programs, in order to reduce reliance on wealthy donors and special interests, and to broaden election access.
SB 852.
Government Code section 84309 currently prohibits any person from receiving or personally delivering or attempting to deliver a contribution in the State Capitol, any state office building, or in any office for which the state pays the majority of the rent other than a legislative district office. SB 852 revises Government Code section 84309 to expand the prohibition to receiving or personally delivering or attempting to deliver a contribution in any local government office building and in any office space for which the local government pays rent, regardless of the proportion of government use in that building.
SB 852 also amends Government Code § 87500 to now require that officials who manage public investments, file their Statement of Economic Interest (Form 700) using the FPPC’s electronic filing system. This change does not alter which officials qualify as “public officials who manage public investments.”
SB 852 makes other changes relating to state-level processes.
AB 953.
Government Code section 85320 prohibits foreign government and foreign principals, as defined, from contributing to, or making expenditures in connection with, political campaigns. This bill amends that section to include that foreign nationals are also prohibited from contributions to or expenditures for political campaigns, and correspondingly prohibits a person or committee from soliciting such a contribution or expenditure from a foreign national.
AB 1286.
This bill provides that elected and appointed officials must disclose any “arrangement for prospective employment” on their Form 700. An “arrangement for prospective employment” means an agreement pursuant to which a prospective employer’s offer of employment has been accepted by the prospective employee.
Noteworthy Changes to the California Public Records Act
One noteworthy bill affecting the Public Records Act is Assembly Bill (“AB”) 370, which amends Section 7922.535 of the Government Code, also known as the California Public Records Act (“CPRA”), to expand the definition of “unusual circumstances.”
The CPRA requires each agency, within 10 days of a request for a copy of records, to determine whether the request seeks copies of disclosable public records in possession of the agency and to promptly notify the requester of the determination. The CPRA further authorizes an extension of no more than 14 days for “unusual circumstances” which include, among other things, the need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine records during a state of emergency when the state of emergency currently affects the agency’s ability to timely respond to requests due to staffing shortages or closure of facilities.
AB 370 expands the definition of “unusual circumstances” to include an agency’s inability to access its electronic servers or systems to search for and obtain a record that the agency believes is responsive to a request and is maintained on the servers or systems in an electronic format, due to a cyberattack. The extension would apply only until the agency regains its ability to access its electronic servers of systems and search for and obtain electronic records that may be responsive to a CPRA request—in which case, the extension could be less than 14 days.
Public agencies must still comply with the 10-day deadline if the requested records are maintained in a location other than on the electronic server or system affected by the cyberattack, or if the records are maintained in a nonelectronic format.
Changes to Ethics Training Requirements
SB 827 updates and expands California’s mandatory ethics training framework (Government Code § 53234 et seq., also referred to as “AB 1234”), for local agency officials, including cities (including charter cities), counties, charter counties, school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and special districts. Under existing law any member of a local agency legislative body or elected official receiving any compensation, salary, stipend, or expense reimbursement—along with designated employees—must complete two hours of ethics training every two years. SB 827 expands who must receive ethics training, ensuring that department heads and similar administrative officers of all types of local agencies are included within the AB 1234 framework.
SB 827 also mandates a new, standalone fiscal and financial training mandate for a broad range of local agency officials, including legislative body members. Officials that are in service before January 1, 2026, must complete the fiscal training by January 1, 2028, and officials who begin service on or after January 1, 2026, must complete training within six months from the first day of service. Thereafter, the fiscal and financial training must occur every two years.
SB 827 establishes requirements that local agencies provide information about available fiscal and financial training at least once annually to local agency officials and that records relating to ethics and fiscal training be retained for five years. By July 1, 2026, local agency websites must include posted instructions and contact information for requesting these records.
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