August 19, 2026 · Local Gov · 844 words · 12 speakers · 42 segments
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this meeting. The Senate welcomes the public in person. We are holding our committee hearings here in the Capitol building. I ask all members of the committee, great, thank you, for being here in room 112. We only have one bill on today's agenda, SB 1187, honor referral pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10D. This bill was significantly amended in the Assembly, so the Senate Rules Committee returned the bill to committee to hear those changes. Check for a quorum. Senator Stavazzo?
Here. Stavazzo here.
Choi?
Here. Choi here.
Arrigin?
Present. Arrigin here.
Ashby? Cervantes?
Here. Cervantes here.
Laird?
Here. Laird here.
Sayarto?
Here. Sayarto here.
You have a quorum. Okay. So then I just leave this down. And now if I can turn it over to Senator Choi Okay Chairwoman will make a presentation on SB 1187
All for my bill. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Last year, I authored SB 707, which comprehensively modernized the Ralph Brown Act rules for government bodies to improve transparency and allow public access to their governments. The bill allowed governments to better serve communities and increase the public's access to meetings, especially for disabled, working, and non-English speaking communities. SB 707 included language access provisions related to the translation of agendas, additional languages, employed human translators, and conducting additional outreach that are slated to go into effect immediately on July 1, 2026. Due to concerns from language access advocates, SB 1187, as recently amended, removes the language access provisions, adds findings, and adds an urgency clause. Additionally, this bill alleviates cost constraints for local governments. To the stakeholders, I want to thank you very much for the robust conversations with us, my staff. I know we had several meetings. We went back and forth. This is what being inclusive means, to hear all sides and attempt to find a pathway forward. I'm thankful that we found one. With me today, we have Eric Loyer, Senior Legislative Advocate, Government, Finance, and Administration, with CSAC as our lead witness in support.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Vice Chair and members. Eric Lohr on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in strong support of SB 1187 I wanna start by commending Senator Durazzo for her tireless efforts on the Brown Act over the past couple of years I also want to thank all the staff consultants and member staff who have engaged on this issue and dedicated a lot of long hours on what is, frankly, a very difficult and often unforgiving issue. The Brown Act is often a challenging space given the critical importance of public meetings, public accessibility, and the real-world challenges faced by local agencies. SB 1187 is a direct response to concerns raised by language access advocates, removing prescriptive standards, mandates, formulas, and other directive language for local agencies. Nothing in this bill prohibits local agencies from improving language accessibility at public meetings. Cities and counties are already voluntarily providing translated meeting agendas, live interpretation, alternative language captions, and other accommodations of language accessibility at meetings. SB 1187 is a helpful change to the law that benefits both language access advocates and local agencies. We respectfully ask for your aye vote. Thank you.
Okay. Any other support statements to be made in the audience? No? If not, then members? Okay. Do you have a comment? Yes.
Ethan Higler, I'm back, the California Municipal Clerks Association, and the Marine County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers in support. Thank you.
Okay, any opposition? Okay, I see nobody. And our committee members, any questions and comments? Okay, Senator Laird. Okay. Okay.
moving the bill by Senator Seattle, but the correct language is assembly amendments to be concurred in. That's your motion.
Yes, say yes, yes. Say yes. Okay. All right motion has been made What were you doing to me Motion has been made to assembly amendments to be concluded in Any other comments? Okay, and I make a closing remarks.
Okay, my closing remarks is I respectfully ask for your aye vote, And I want to thank our staff who worked extremely, extremely hard, long hours. Thank you, Mr. Peterson.
Okay, with that closing statement, clerk, will you please call the vote?
The motion is that the assembly amendments be concurred in. Senators DeRozzo?
Aye.
DeRozzo, aye.
Choi?
Aye.
Choi, aye.
Aragin?
Aye.
Aragin, aye. Ashby? Cervantes?
Aye.
Cervantes, aye.
Laird?
Aye.
Laird, aye.
Sigarto?
Aye.
Sigarto, aye.
6-0. The bill is out. Okay, 6-0 bill is out.
Thank you, congratulations.
Thank you to all the individuals who participated in public testimony today. If you were not able to testify today, please submit your comments or suggestions in writing to the Senate Local Government Committee or visit our website. Your comments and suggestions are important to us and we want to include your testimony in the official hearing records. Thank you and we appreciate your participation. We have concluded the agenda. The Senate Committee on Local Government is now adjourned.