republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-428.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local government: the Ralph M. Brown Act."
description: "The Ralph M. Brown Act requires that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and public, except that closed sessions may be held under prescribed circumstances. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing for the benefit of the public and the legislative body of a local agency in connection with any meeting or proceeding authorized by law provided that the teleconferenced meeting or proceeding complies with all otherwise applicable requirements and provisions of law relating to a specific type of meeting or proceeding. Existing law, until January 1, 2018, authorizes a health authority that conducts a teleconference meeting to count members who are outside the jurisdiction of the authority toward the establishment of a quorum when participating in the teleconference if at least 50% of the number of members that would establish a quorum are present within the boundaries of the territory over which the authority exercises jurisdiction, and the health authority provides a teleconference number, and associated access codes, if any, that allows any person to call in to participate in the meeting, as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 428"
citation: "California AB 428 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Local government: the Ralph M. Brown Act."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ridley-Thomas"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-02-09"
last_action: "2017-07-31"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/aa7999a3-c237-4e4d-a5bc-bdf3b4c80fe7"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB428"
source_hash: "15995e7b5331294c8a69e243f0aaf9b45936fbc99aefd2ef5b8608b635fb38c7"
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 428 (20172018) — Local government: the Ralph M. Brown Act.

The Ralph M. Brown Act requires that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and public, except that closed sessions may be held under prescribed circumstances. Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing for the benefit of the public and the legislative body of a local agency in connection with any meeting or proceeding authorized by law provided that the teleconferenced meeting or proceeding complies with all otherwise applicable requirements and provisions of law relating to a specific type of meeting or proceeding. Existing law, until January 1, 2018, authorizes a health authority that conducts a teleconference meeting to count members who are outside the jurisdiction of the authority toward the establishment of a quorum when participating in the teleconference if at least 50% of the number of members that would establish a quorum are present within the boundaries of the territory over which the authority exercises jurisdiction, and the health authority provides a teleconference number, and associated access codes, if any, that allows any person to call in to participate in the meeting, as specified.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/09/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB428&version=20170AB42899INT)
2. **07/31/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB428&version=20170AB42897CHP)
3. **AB428** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB428)
4. **07/19/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB428&version=20170AB42898ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent Calendar # AB428 — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ridley-Thomas — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-09** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-10** From printer. May be heard in committee March 12.
- **2017-02-21** Referred to Com. on L. GOV. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-05** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2017-05-11** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (May 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-05-15** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-26** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1711.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-26** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-08** Referred to Com. on GOV. & F. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-28** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-06-29** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-07-11** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2017-07-17** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2071.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-07-17** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2017-07-21** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2017-07-31** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-07-31** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 137, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/aa7999a3-c237-4e4d-a5bc-bdf3b4c80fe7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).