• Outreach This bill will now require eligible legislative bodies to take specific actions to encourage residents to participate in public meetings, including: • Provide a system for electronically accepting and fulfilling requests for meeting agendas; • Have an accessible internet webpage dedicated to information concerning public meetings and how members of the public may participate, including a link to the page on the agency’s home page; and • Make reasonable efforts to invite groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings to attend those meetings, such as outreach to media organizations serving non-English-speaking communities or civic engagement organizations. The legislative body has broad discretion to implement these efforts.
• Language Translation and Interpretation Eligible legislative bodies must also:
• Translate the agenda and instructions on how to participate in meetings into any language spoken jointly by 20 percent or more of an applicable population that also speaks English less than “very well” according to the American Community Survey; • Provide reasonable assistance to members of the public who wish to use personal interpreters, such as arranging space for interpreters and allowing extra time for interpretation; • The new webpage requirements for webpages dedicated to information concerning public meetings must be translated into any language spoken jointly by 20 percent or more of an applicable population that also speaks English less than “very well” according to the American Community Survey; • Make a physical location, within reasonable proximity to the location where the agenda is posted, freely accessible to the public so the public may post additional translations of that agenda Rules Applicable to Legislative Bodies in General While the rules above apply to eligible legislative bodies, the following rules apply to legislative bodies more broadly and generally.
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