---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local government: open meetings."
description: "The Ralph M. Brown Act requires each legislative body of a local agency to provide the time and place for holding regular meetings and requires that all meetings of a legislative body be open and public. Under the act, all persons are permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency, unless a closed session is authorized. Under the act, the legislative body of a local agency is authorized to hold closed sessions with the Attorney General, district attorney, agency counsel, sheriff, or chief of police, or their respective deputies, or a security consultant or a security operations manager, on matters posing a threat to the security of public buildings, a threat to the security of essential public services, as specified, or a threat to the public's right of access to public services or public facilities."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20132014"
identifier: "AB 246"
citation: "California AB 246 (20132014)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Local government: open meetings."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bradford"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2013-02-06"
last_action: "2013-06-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b82de081-3987-4ece-bd58-9651d431bb17"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB246"
source_hash: "fbd9b6c70785909311cd4c5151d7cd98abb545148ee367747ac4445041c45f38"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 246 (20132014) — Local government: open meetings.

The Ralph M. Brown Act requires each legislative body of a local agency to provide the time and place for holding regular meetings and requires that all meetings of a legislative body be open and public. Under the act, all persons are permitted to attend any meeting of the legislative body of a local agency, unless a closed session is authorized. Under the act, the legislative body of a local agency is authorized to hold closed sessions with the Attorney General, district attorney, agency counsel, sheriff, or chief of police, or their respective deputies, or a security consultant or a security operations manager, on matters posing a threat to the security of public buildings, a threat to the security of essential public services, as specified, or a threat to the public's right of access to public services or public facilities.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/06/13 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB246&version=20130AB24699INT)
2. **06/24/13 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB246&version=20130AB24697CHP)
3. **AB246** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB246)
4. **06/05/13 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB246&version=20130AB24698ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB246 Bradford By Hernandez — **32–4** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 246 BRADFORD Assembly Third Reading — **69–5** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bradford — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2013-02-06** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2013-02-07** From printer. May be heard in committee March 9.
- **2013-02-15** Referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2013-04-04** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (April 3). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2013-04-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2013-04-15** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 69. Noes 5. Page 916.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2013-04-15** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2013-04-25** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2013-05-16** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (May 15). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2013-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2013-06-03** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 1222.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2013-06-03** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2013-06-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2:10 p.m.
- **2013-06-24** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2013-06-24** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 11, Statutes of 2013.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b82de081-3987-4ece-bd58-9651d431bb17`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).