Councilmember Questions Legality of Allowing Virtual Public Comments at City Council Meetings

At the Legislative Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday, Councilmember Steve Madison questioned whether or not allowing virtual comments at City Council meetings is permissible under the law.

He made his comments after Chief Assistant City Attorney Javan Rad made a presentation on current teleconferencing rules, pursuant to the Committee’s request. 

AB 2449 which passed in 2022 states that members of the Council can participate virtually under just cause or emergency circumstances. 

Just cause circumstances are circumstances that prevent a member from attending in-person due to child or parent care, a contagious illness, physical/mental disability or travel on official city or state business.

Emergency circumstances is defined as a physical or family medical emergency that prevents the member from attending in person.

Councilmembers attending remotely must have both their audio and camera on.

The teleconference location is not required to be disclosed but the Councilmember must disclose whether anyone over 18 is with him or her in the room.

Under AB 2449, quorum must be at a single physical location within the city.

Madison said while he is in favor of allowing the public to comment virtually, the City Council must ensure this is in accordance with the law.

“We’ve taken a position that even post Covid people can comment remotely. I do wonder about that sometimes because it’s customer driven right, it may be better for some folks who have families or work or obligations to do it remotely.” 

“But everything I’m reading is that everything is supposed to happen in public and when people call in like that, they are not presenting themselves in public for their viewpoint.”

While AB 2449 is silent as regards public comment, Madison pointed out that the Brown Act says public meetings should be conducted in public.

“When you have people call in and you don’t know where they are calling from, we don’t know who they are, they are not visible to us, “ Madison said. 

He also points out that AB 2449 allows Councilmembers to participate remotely only if there is a valid reason or an emergency.

“It’s kind of expressio unius, the fact that they have made those provisions could lead you to conclude that there is no such provision permitting remote comment in the normal course,” he said. 

“Stakeholders could object to that and say if you’re going to oppose my project then you’re going to have to show up just like I do, stand up and say it not to my face but to the public in a public way.”

The Committee did not take any action on the item which is information only.

The City Council began conducting hybrid meetings  — meetings conducted both in-person and streamed live early this year after doing virtual meetings for nearly three years during the pandemic.