California Assembly Bill AB1723 Introduced / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 1723INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Fuentes FEBRUARY 16, 2012 An act to amend Section 66020.5 of the Education Code, relating to public postsecondary education. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1723, as introduced, Fuentes. Postsecondary educational institutions: meetings: live audio transmission. Existing law requires the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Trustees of the California State University, the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and the Student Aid Commission, including specified auxiliary organizations, and requests the Regents of the University of California, to provide for live audio transmission of all meetings, which are open to the public pursuant to specified law, through a technology that is accessible to as large a segment of the public as possible, including, but not necessarily limited to, the use of cable, satellite, over-the-air, or any other type of transmission that can be accessed though a television. This bill would remove over-the-air transmissions from the list of transmissions that can be accessed through a television. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 66020.5 of the Education Code is amended to read: 66020.5. (a) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the Trustees of the California State University, the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and the Student Aid Commission, including any auxiliary organization established pursuant to Section 69522, shall, and the Regents of the University of California are requested to, provide for live audio transmission of all meetings, which are open to the public pursuant to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), through a technology that is accessible to as large a segment of the public as possible, including, but not necessarily limited to, the use of either of the following technologies: (1) Cable, satellite,  over-the-air,  or any other type of transmission that can be accessed  though   through  a television. (2) Web cast, in which case notice of meetings that are open to the public and links to the Web cast shall be easily accessible via each entity's Internet Web site. (b) It is not a violation of this section if technical failures prevent an entity from providing a live audio transmission so long as the entity exercised reasonable diligence in making a live audio transmission available.