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2025 Lozano Smith Brown Act Handbook

Welcome to the 2025 edition of Lozano Smith’s Brown Act Handbook. The 2025 edition
reflects new legislation, cases, and Attorney General opinions, as well as editorial changes.
Substantive changes are summarized below.

1. Four New Bills Modify the Brown Act.

Governor Newsom signed four new bills amending the Brown Act, which went into effect on
January 1, 2025. Below is a summary of the changes, which have been incorporated into the
Handbook.

Assembly Bill 2302 – New Limits on Remote Participation

Previous amendments to the Brown Act authorized members of the legislative body to
participate in a meeting remotely under a “just cause” or “emergency circumstances” exception
without complying with the traditional teleconferencing requirements. These remote meeting
exceptions are valid until January 1, 2026, unless extended by the Legislature.

Prior law limited remote participation under both the “just cause” and “emergency
circumstances” exceptions to not more than three consecutive months or twenty percent of
regular meetings in a given year unless the legislative body meets less than ten times per year in
which case the limit is not more than two meetings per year. AB 2302 revises the limitations on
member remote attendance based on the number of regular meetings of a legislative body per
year.

The following limits now apply:

• If a legislative body meets one or fewer times per month, remote participation is limited
to two meetings per year.
• If a legislative body meets twice per month, remote participation is limited to five
meetings per year.
• If a legislative body meets three or more times per month, remote participation is limited
to seven meetings per year.

Irrespective of the new limitations on the combined use of remote participation exceptions, the
“just cause” exception may only be used for two meetings per year by a member.

Assembly Bill 2715 – Extension of Closed Session to Cybersecurity

Local agencies may only conduct “closed session meetings” (private governing board
discussions out of view of the public) for specific purposes expressly authorized by the Brown
Act. Existing law allows legislative bodies to hold closed sessions to discuss real property

2025 Brown Act Handbook LozanoSmith.com