SB 1159

The California Constitution provides that people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business. Various provisions of existing law, including the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, and the Ralph M. Brown Act, provide, with some exceptions, for public access to government records and meetings of government bodies. Among those acts, the California Public Records Act defines “person” to include any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or association. Existing law, the Political Reform Act of 1974, imposes various requirements and limitations with respect to the conduct of public officials, campaign expenditures and disclosures, political advertisements, lobbying, the ballot pamphlet, and other aspects of political reform. The act defines “person” to mean an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, and any other organization or group of persons acting in concert. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, governs, among other things, the procedures for the adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations by state agencies and for the review of those regulatory actions by the Office of Administrative Law. Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA defines “person” to include any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business, trust, corporation, limited liability company, company, district, county, city and county, city, town, and, among other things, the state. This bill would specify that, for purposes of the California Public Records Act, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Political Reform Act of 1974, the Administrative Procedure Act, and CEQA, “person,” “interested person,” “participant,” “member of the public,” as applicable, and any other similar terms under each act referring to those who may engage with governmental agencies, do not include artificial intelligence, as defined, systems, autonomous agents, robots, or other nonhuman entities, whether physical or digital. The bill would make findings and declarations related to these provisions. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.