Page 18 - 2024 Brown Act Handbook

legislation. Commenting in this manner could constitute discussion among members of the
legislative body.

The new law does not appear to prohibit a member of a legislative body from
commenting on, forwarding or “liking” a post made by a member of the public, as long as those
comments do not become a discussion of agency business “of a specific nature” among a
majority of the members of the legislative body. While the bill does not define the term “of a
specific nature,” that term is used elsewhere in the Brown Act to distinguish such prohibited
discussions from permissible discussions of issues of general interest to the public or to public
agencies of a similar type.

Thus, for example, it appears that if a member of the public posts information that
is of interest to the agency, one or more individual members of the legislative body could re-post
that message in order to make the information more available to the public. However, because
there is such a wide variety of types of interactions on social media, there are a host of specific
situations that the legislation did not address, and where there are ambiguities that will likely
lead to further debate over what exactly the new law permits or prohibits.

(Government Code § 54952.2.)

III.
LOCATION, NOTICE, AGENDA, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
ACCESSIBILITY, AND OTHER MEETING REQUIREMENTS

A. LOCATION OF MEETINGS

1. All Local Agencies Must Meet Within the Jurisdictional Boundaries With
Specified Exceptions.

The law requires that meetings of the “legislative body” be held within the
territory of the local agency except that meetings may be outside the local agency:

a. To meet requirements of state or federal law or court order, or to attend a
judicial or administrative proceeding to which the agency is a party;

b. To inspect real or personal property that cannot be brought conveniently to
the local agency, provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the
real or personal property;

c. To participate in meetings or discussions of multi-agency significance
held within the jurisdiction of one of the participating local agencies and open and noticed by all
participating local agencies as required by the Brown Act;

d. To meet in the closest meeting facility if none is available inside the local
agency boundaries or at the principal office of the local agency if located outside its boundaries;

8 2024 Brown Act Handbook LozanoSmith.com