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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRES-26-7566 (TECHNOLOGY DISRUPTION) Page 1 of 4 RES-26-7566 CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH RESOLUTION NO. RES-26-7566 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH, CALIORNIA, ADOPTING A POLICY REGARDING DISRUPTION OF TELEPHONIC OR INTERNET SERVICE DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS; MAKING FINDINGS REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH SENATE BILL 707 (2025) AND GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54953.4; AND ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR CONTINUED REMOTE PUBLIC ACCESS WHEREAS, the Ralph M. Brown Act (Government Code section 54950 et seq.) (“Brown Act”) requires that actions and deliberations of a majority of the City Council (“Council”) occur in a noticed public meeting; and WHEREAS, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 707 (“SB 707”) on October 3, 2025, which amended the Brown Act to to expand and increase public participation in Council meetings; and WHEREAS, SB 707 requires the Council to provide two-way remote public access to meetings and to adopt a policy establishing procedures for responding to disruptions in telephonic or internet service that prevent members of the public from attending or observing a meeting remotely on or before July 1, 2026; and WHEREAS, the City of Hermosa Beach (“City”) Council currently conducts its meetings in a hybrid format, providing both in-person and remote public participation; and WHEREAS, the City currently provides two-way remote public access through an audiovisual platform and telephonic call-in option; and WHEREAS, the Council desires to adopt a Technology Disruption Policy consistent with SB 707 and the requirements of the Brown Act as amended; and WHEREAS, the Policy establishes definitions, operational procedures, responsibilities of the Mayor and City Clerk, requirements for restoration efforts, procedures for reconvening meetings, recordkeeping requirements, and protocols for addressing disruptive remote participants; and WHEREAS, the Policy titled “Disruption of Telephonic or Internet Service Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 2 of 4 RES-26-7566 During Public Meetings” is attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by this reference. NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH DOES HEREBY RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Incorporation of Recitals. The recitals above are true and correct, and are hereby incorporated herein by reference. SECTION 2. Findings. The Council hereby finds as follows: a. Compliance with State Law. Adoption of the Policy is necessary to comply with SB 707 and the Brown Act, which require the Council to adopt a policy addressing disruptions in telephonic or internet service that prevent members of the public from attending or observing meetings remotely. b. Public Participation and Transparency. Providing two- way remote public access promotes transparency, accessibility, and public participation in local government decision-making; and that adoption of the Policy will assist in ensuring continuity of such participation during technological disruptions. c. Good-Faith Restoration Procedures. The Policy establishes reasonable and legally compliant procedures requiring prompt announcement of service disruptions, recess of meetings when appropriate, good-faith efforts to restore service, and documentation of disruption events. d. Continuity of Government Operations. The Policy appropriately balances the public interest in remote public participation with the public interest in the orderly continuation of City business by establishing procedures for reconvening meetings when restoration efforts are unsuccessful. e. Administrative Guidance. The Policy provides clear operational direction to the Council, City Clerk, City staff, and future Councils regarding the handling of service disruptions and disruptive remote participants; thereby promoting consistent implementation of State law requirements. f. Public Benefit. Adoption of the Policy serves a significant public benefit by ensuring continued public access to Council proceedings, Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 3 of 4 RES-26-7566 enhancing transparency, and preserving opportunities for public participation consistent with the purposes of the Brown Act. SECTION 3. Adoption of Policy. The Council hereby adopts the Policy. SECTION 4. Implementation. The City Clerk shall maintain the Policy as an official Council Policy, and shall publish and make the Policy available to the public in accordance with applicable City procedures. The City Clerk is further directed to continue facilitating two-way remote public access for Council meetings whenever required by the Brown Act and operationally feasible. The City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney are authorized to take administrative actions necessary to implement this Resolution and the Policy, provided such revisions remain consistent with applicable law. SECTION 5. California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”). The Council finds that adoption of the Policy is not a "project" within the meaning of CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(5) because it constitutes an administrative activity of government that will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. In the alternative, even if the action were determined to be a project, it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that adoption of the Policy may have a significant effect on the environment; and therefore the activity is not subject to CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3). SECTION 6. Severability. If any section or provision of this Resolution is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, or contravened by reason of any preemptive legislation, the remaining sections and/or provisions of this Resolution shall remain valid. The City Council declares that it would have adopted this Resolution, and each section or provision thereof, regardless of the fact that any one or more section(s) or provision(s) may be declared invalid or unconstitutional or contravened via legislation. SECTION 7. Certification. The City Clerk shall certify to the passage and adoption of this Resolution; cause the same to be entered among the original resolutions of the City; and make a minute of the passage and adoption thereof in the records of the proceedings of the City Council in the minutes of the meeting at which time same is passed and adopted. Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 4 of 4 RES-26-7566 SECTION 8. Effective Date. This Resolution shall take effect immediately upon adoption. PASSED, APPROVED, and ADOPTED on this 23rd day of June 2026. Mayor Mike Detoy PRESIDENT of the City Council and MAYOR of the City of Hermosa Beach, CA ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM: ________________________________ ________________________________ Martha Alvarez Jason Baltimore City Clerk Interim City Attorney Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 1 of 4 1. BACKGROUND Senate Bill 707 (2025) amended the Ralph M. Brown Act (Government Code section 54950 et seq.) (“Brown Act”) to require the City Council to adopt a policy addressing how the City of Hermosa Beach (“City”) will respond to disruptions in telephonic or internet service that prevent members of the public from participating remotely on or before July 1, 2026. 2. PURPOSE This policy establishes procedures for responding to a disruption in the telephonic or internet services that provide two-way remote public access to meetings of the City Council as required by the Brown Act. The policy ensures transparency, public participation, and the continuation of meetings during technological disruptions. 3. DEFINITIONS • “Service Disruption” means any failure, outage, or other interruption to the City’s remote access services that prevents members of the public from participating in a City Council meeting through the remote access service. • “Disrupting” means engaging in behavior during a meeting of the City Council that actually disrupts, disturbs, impedes, or renders infeasible the orderly conduct of the meeting and includes the following conduct: a. A failure to comply with reasonable and lawful regulations adopted by the City Council. b. Engaging in behavior that constitutes use of force or a true threat of force. • “Remote access services” means the two-way telephonic service and/or two-way audiovisual platform used to provide real-time remote public attendance and observation of meetings. • “Two-way audiovisual platform” means an online platform that provides participants with the ability to participate in a meeting via both an interactive video conference and a two-way telephonic service. POLICY: DISRUPTION OF TELEPHONIC OR INTERNET SERVICE DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 2 of 4 • “Two-way telephonic service” means a telephone service that does not require internet access and allows participants to dial a telephone number to listen and verbally participate. • “True threat of force” means a threat that has sufficient indicia of intent and seriousness, that a reasonable observer would perceive it to be an actual threat to use force by the person making the threat. 4. APPLICABILITY This policy applies to all open and public meetings of the City Council at which remote public participation is required under the Brown Act. Consistent with the Brown Act, this policy shall not apply to the following meetings: a. Meetings held to attend a judicial or administrative proceeding to which the City is a party. b. Meetings held to inspect real or personal property provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the real or personal property. c. Meetings held to meet with elected or appointed officials of the United States or the State of California, solely to discuss a legislative or regulatory issue affecting the City; and over which the Federal or state officials have jurisdiction. d. Meetings held to meet in or nearby a facility owned by the City, provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the facility. e. Meetings held in an emergency situation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.5. 5. REMOTE PUBLIC ACCESS GENERALLY When remote public access is required under the Brown Act, the City Council shall provide members of the public with an opportunity to attend and participate in the meeting using a two-way audiovisual platform or a two-way telephonic service, provided that adequate telephonic or internet service is operational at the meeting location. If adequate telephonic or internet service is not operational at the meeting location, the City Council shall not be required to provide remote access. If adequate telephonic or internet service is operational for only a portion of the meeting, the City Council shall provide remote access during that portion of the meeting. Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 3 of 4 If a two-way audiovisual platform is used, the City Council shall: a. Publicly post and provide a call-in option as well; and b. Activate any automatic captioning function that is available in the audiovisual platform. If a two-way audiovisual platform is not provided, the City Council shall provide a two-way telephonic service. Members of the public participating remotely shall be provided the same opportunity to provide public comment as members of the public attending in person, including the same time allotment. 6. RESPONSE TO A SERVICE DISRUPTION If the Mayor (or presiding officer) or City Clerk becomes aware of a service disruption: a. The Mayor (or presiding officer) or City Clerk shall immediately announce the service disruption to the public. b. The Mayor (or presiding officer) shall call for a recess of the open session and may convene the City Council in an authorized closed session, consistent with the Brown Act. The recess shall last for one hour or until service is restored, whichever is earlier. c. During the recess, City staff shall make a good faith effort to diagnose and restore the disrupted service. 7. RECONVENING THE OPEN SESSION After the expiration of one hour, if service has not been restored, the Mayor (or presiding officer) or City Clerk shall report on the status of staff’s efforts to restore remote access services, and the City Council may reconvene to: a. Adjourn the meeting; b. Extend the recess to allow staff more time to make a good faith effort to restore remote access services; or c. Continue the open session portion of the meeting by adopting, by roll call vote, the following or a substantially similar finding: “The City has made good faith efforts to restore telephonic or internet service in accordance with its adopted policy, and the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the public interest in remote public access.” Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 Page 4 of 4 Upon adoption of the finding, the City Council may continue the open session portion of the meeting despite remote access services not having been restored. 8. RECORDKEEPING The City Clerk shall enter a brief statement into the meeting minutes, including: • The nature and time of the service disruption; • The time the meeting was reconvened (if applicable); • Any finding adopted pursuant to Section 7; and • A brief summary of the City's good-faith efforts to restore service. 9. RESPONSE TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC DISRUPTING A MEETING If the Mayor (or presiding officer) or City Clerk becomes aware of a member of the public who is attending the meeting through remote access services and is disrupting the meeting or otherwise preventing other members of the public from attending or observing the meeting remotely or in-person: a. The Mayor (or presiding officer) or City Clerk shall warn the person that he or she is disrupting the meeting and his or her failure to cease that behavior may result in his or her removal. b. If the person to whom the Mayor (or presiding officer) gave the above warning persists in disrupting the meeting, the Mayor (or presiding officer) shall order staff to: i. mute or otherwise limit the individual’s ability to disrupt the meeting, while allowing the individual to continue to observe and attend the meeting; or ii. remove the individual from the meeting if paragraph (a) does not address the disrupting behavior or cannot be implemented using the remote access service. 10. REVIEW AND UPDATES This policy may be amended by the City Council at a noticed public meeting in open session and may not be placed on the consent calendar consistent with Government Code section 54953.4 and any successor provisions of law. Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1 State of California ) County of Los Angeles ) ss City of Hermosa Beach ) June 29, 2026 Certification of Council Action RESOLUTION NO. RES-26-7566 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH, CALIFORNIA, ADOPTING A POLICY REGARDING DISRUPTION OF TELEPHONIC OR INTERNET SERVICE DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS; MAKING FINDINGS REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH SENATE BILL 707 (2025) AND GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54953.4; AND ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR CONTINUED REMOTE PUBLIC ACCESS I, Martha Alvarez, City Clerk of the City of Hermosa Beach, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing Resolution No. RES -26-75 66 was duly approved and adopted by the City Council of said City at its regular meeting thereof held on the 23rd day of June 2026 and passed by the following vote: AYES:MAYOR DETOY, MAYOR PRO TEMPORE KEEGAN, COUNCILMEMBERS JACKSON, FRANCOIS, AND SAEMANN NOES:NONE ABSTAIN:NONE ABSENT:NONE ________________________________ Martha Alvarez City Clerk Docusign Envelope ID: C8AA9A03-DE38-8F7E-81D8-C247A8A6F6B1