“The widespread use of rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters following the death of George Floyd have made it clear that limitations on the use of these tactics are necessary.”
Local governments could abuse the provisions of AB 361 and evade the Brown Act’s transparency requirements if they declare a local emergency.
The bill would enhance public participation in local and state government meetings by ensuring constituents have opportunities to join and comment in person or remotely.
AB 268 runs afoul of the First Amendment and would allow a troubling level of secrecy in death investigations.
Q: I have anonymously requested from various San Francisco agencies, under the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance and California Public Records Act, full email and calendar records, specifically in the original electronic format the city agencies hold them. While some agencies do indeed produce their emails/calendar entries in the native electronic formats like .msg, .eml, .ics, etc. which preserve all the headers, attachments, and metadata, more often, agencies “print” the records to PDF format. This causes