The Fullerton City Council is scheduled to consider several actions at its June 2 meeting to comply with new state open-meeting requirements enacted under Senate Bill 707, legislation that significantly expands public access provisions under California’s Ralph M. Brown Act.

The council must adopt the required measures before July 1, 2026, when key portions of the law take effect.
Senate Bill 707, approved by the California Legislature in 2025, amended multiple sections of the Brown Act governing public meetings of local legislative bodies. While some provisions took effect January 1, 2026, others require action by local governments before July 1.

Among the most significant changes is a requirement that cities provide the public with two-way remote access to meetings through telephone or audiovisual platforms. Fullerton has offered remote participation for City Council meetings since 2021 and has extended the practice to boards, commissions, and committees, exceeding state requirements.

The June 2 agenda item focuses primarily on two new mandates: adopting a technology disruption policy and implementing outreach efforts to increase participation from historically underrepresented groups.
Under SB 707, legislative bodies must adopt formal procedures for handling interruptions to remote public access during meetings. The law requires the presiding officer to recess a meeting if city officials become aware that members of the public can no longer participate remotely because of a technology failure.

The proposed Fullerton policy would require staff to attempt to restore service during a recess lasting up to one hour. If remote access is restored, the meeting will resume normally. If service cannot be restored after at least one hour of troubleshooting, the City Council could vote to continue the meeting only after making specific findings that reasonable efforts were made to restore access and that the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the interest in maintaining remote participation.

According to the staff report, the council may not adopt the technology disruption policy through the consent calendar and must consider it separately in open session.

Although SB 707 applies the technology-disruption requirement only to legislative bodies such as the City Council, city staff recommend that the same procedures be extended to all city boards, commissions, and committees. Staff have prepared amendments to those bodies’ rules of procedure to create a uniform policy across the city government.

The legislation also requires legislative bodies to make reasonable efforts to encourage participation from individuals and groups that have not traditionally engaged in public meetings.

Examples identified in the staff report include media outlets serving non-English-speaking communities, civic engagement organizations, neighborhood associations, civil rights groups, and community organizations representing underserved populations.

To satisfy this requirement, staff have prepared a separate resolution outlining outreach efforts intended to broaden public awareness and participation in city meetings.

The proposed actions come as local governments across California work to implement SB 707, which lawmakers said was intended to expand public access and participation in government decision-making following the widespread use of remote meeting technology during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fullerton City Council is expected to discuss and consider the proposed resolutions during its June 2 meeting.