Foster City staff brief council on SB 707 changes to the Brown Act, including remote participation and translation rules

At a joint meeting of the Foster City Council and Planning Commission, a city legal presenter summarized SB 707, the 2025 revision to the Brown Act that changes how the public and officials may participate remotely and how cities must publicize meeting access.

The presenter said SB 707 was signed into law on 10/03/2025 and described three main changes that affect Foster City: eligible legislative bodies must allow members of the public to participate remotely by either two‑way telephonic service or a two‑way audio‑visual platform; officials may use limited just‑cause remote participation without disclosing their location under specified limits; and a new category of "eligible subsidiary bodies" may convene entirely remotely if the council authorizes it and reauthorizes the arrangement every six months. "The bill was aimed at providing improving public access to meetings," the staff member said, adding that the measure takes effect in stages and that many requirements are due by July 1 for eligible legislative bodies.

Why it matters: SB 707 changes local meeting procedures that affect public access and city operations. Under the law, if Foster City continues using a two‑way audio‑visual platform (the city uses a Zoom‑type platform), real‑time captioning must be activated if the feature is included in the platform. The presenter said the city would have to publicize instructions for members of the public who wish to translate a meeting or receive interpretation by another member of the public and must create a dedicated webpage explaining how to participate in meetings.

The presentation also explained thresholds and limits. An "eligible legislative body" generally means a city council for cities with populations of 30,000 or more (or councils in counties of 600,000 or more) and thus applies to Foster City for these provisions, the presenter said. SB 707 specifies permitted reasons for officials to use just‑cause remote participation (caregiving, contagious illness, travel for official government business, military obligations, and similar reasons) and caps how often members may use that option depending on how often the body meets. The staff member noted that eligible subsidiary bodies—advisory committees that cannot take final action on certain subjects—could meet fully remotely if the council authorizes it and ensures a public physical location with at least one staff member present.

Council members pressed for practical details. Commissioners and council members asked whether the law requires the city to pay for translations and how the term "Chinese" in the statute should be handled (whether to translate into Mandarin, Cantonese, or both). The staff member said the state does not provide reimbursement for translation costs. On linguistic scope, the presenter said the city will rely on the American Community Survey to determine which languages meet the statute’s threshold; Foster City staff have preliminarily determined that agendas will need translation into Chinese.

What comes next: staff said it will evaluate technology needs, develop an outreach plan, craft a disruption policy for teleconference outages, and return with a council item for the disruption policy and other required plans before July 1. "So between now and before July 1 staff will be taking a few steps to get ready," the staff member said.

The council did not take formal action on SB 707 at the meeting; staff will return with implementation details and proposed policies for council consideration.