HomeMy WebLinkAboutSB 707 (Durazo) - Open Meetings and Teleconferencing Requirements -City of SLO - Request to VETOCity of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3249, 805.781.7114,
slocity.org
September 19, 2025
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 707 (Durazo) Open Meetings: Meeting and Teleconference Requirements
Request for Veto
Dear Governor Newsom,
The City of San Luis Obispo respectfully requests your Veto on SB 707 (Durazo). Our city strongly
supports public transparency and accessibility, but SB 707, as currently drafted, would impose
costly and inequitable new mandates on cities like ours without providing the resources or
flexibility needed for implementation.
SB 707 would create significant fiscal and operational challenges for our city, including:
• Providing two-way telephonic or audiovisual access for council meetings, halting
proceedings during any service disruption.
• Translating agendas into all “applicable languages” spoken jointly by 20 percent or more of
the applicable population, provided that 20 percent or more of the population that speaks
that language in that city speaks English less than “very well.”
• Designating a public space for community-submitted translations, even if inaccurate or
misleading.
• Creating and maintaining multi-language webpages for agendas, instructions, and meeting
procedures.
• Expanding outreach efforts and electronic systems for agenda access.
For the City of San Luis Obispo, these obligations would mean hiring additional staffing to be able to
support virtual meeting and to create and maintain multi-language webpages for agendas,
instructions and meeting procedures. Because of Proposition 42 (2014), none of these requirements
would be reimbursable, forcing our city to absorb all costs.
The bill applies unevenly across jurisdictions, treating cities of similar size differently based solely
on county population, while the State itself is exempt. This creates inequities for mid-sized cities
like San Luis Obispo that already invest in accessibility but would be disproportionately burdened
by new mandates.
Although the implementation deadline was extended to July 1, 2026, this timeline is still insufficient
for cities to responsibly budget, procure, and train for compliance. Our budget cycle is already
finalized for FY 2025–27, meaning new costs would fall outside of planned allocations and force us
to divert resources from essential services such as police, fire, and homelessness response.
For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo respectfully request your Veto on SB 707 (Durazo).
Sincerely,
Erica A. Stewart
Mayor
City of San Luis Obispo
cc. Senator John Laird
Assemblymember Dawn Addis
Dave Mullinex, League of California Cities
Meg Desmond, League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org