Accessing Public Meetings

Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act applies to California State agencies, boards, and commissions to assure that “the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny.” The act facilitates accountability and transparency of government activities and protects the rights of citizens to participate in State government deliberations. It differs from California’s Brown Act, which applies to open meetings at the county and local level.

The act also reaffirms, “The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”