Exhibit A
CITY OF RIPON
DISRUPTION OF MEETINGS POLICY
1. Background
Senate Bill 707 (2025) amended the Brown Act to require eligible legislative bodies to adopt a policy addressing how the City will respond to disruptions in telephonic or internet service that prevent members of the public from participating remotely.
2. Purpose
This policy establishes procedures for responding to a disruption in the telephonic or internet services that provide two-way remote public access to meetings of the City Council of the City of Ripon, to the extent required by the Brown Act (Government Code section 54953.4). The policy also includes procedures for warning, muting, and removing disruptive remote or inperson attendees consistent with Government Code section 54957.95.
3. Definitions
“Service Disruption” means any failure, outage, or other interruption to the City’s remote access services that prevents members of the public from participating in a City Council meeting through the remote access service.
“Disrupting” means engaging in behavior during a meeting of the City Council that actually disrupts, disturbs, impedes, or renders infeasible the orderly conduct of the meeting and includes, but is not limited to one of the following:
a. A failure to comply with reasonable and lawful regulations adopted by the City Council of the City of Ripon, including, but not limited to, this Policy. b. Engaging in behavior that constitutes use of force or a true threat of force. “Presiding Officer” means the Mayor, or in the Mayor’s absence the Vice Mayor or, in the absence of both, the Council Member with the lowest-numbered seat on the Council. “Remote access services” means the two-way telephonic service and/or two-way audiovisual platform used to provide real-time remote public attendance and observation of meetings. “Two-way audiovisual platform” means an online platform that provides participants with the ability to participate in a meeting via both an interactive video conference and a two-way telephonic service.
“Two-way telephonic service” means a telephone service that does not require internet access and allows participants to dial a telephone number to listen and verbally participate.
SAMPLE POLICY
Exhibit A
“True threat of force” means a threat that has sufficient indicia of intent and seriousness, that a reasonable observer would perceive it to be an actual threat to use force by the person making the threat.
4. Applicability
This policy applies to all open and public meetings of the City Council at which remote public participation is required under the Government Code section 54953.4. It does not apply to closed sessions. Consistent with Government Code section 54953.4, this policy shall not apply to the following meetings:
a. Meetings held to attend a judicial or administrative proceeding to which the City of Ripon is a party.
b. Meetings held to inspect real or personal property provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the real or personal property. c. Meetings held to meet with elected or appointed officials of the United States or the State of California, solely to discuss a legislative or regulatory issue affecting the City of Ripon and over which the federal or state officials have jurisdiction. d. Meetings held in or nearby a facility owned by the City of Ripon, provided that the topic of the meeting is limited to items directly related to the facility. e. Meetings held in an emergency situation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.5.
5. Response to Service Disruption
If a service disruption occurs during a meeting subject to the requirements of this Policy:
a. The Presiding Officer or designee shall immediately announce the service disruption to the public.
b. The Presiding Officer shall call for a recess of the open session and may convene the legislative body in an authorized closed session, consistent with the Brown Act. The recess shall last for one hour or until service is restored, whichever is earlier. c. During the recess, the City of Ripon staff shall make a good faith effort to diagnose and restore the disrupted service.
6. Reconvening the Open Session
After the expiration of the recess described in Section 6, or any extension thereof, if service has not been restored, the Presiding Officer, or City Clerk shall report on the status of staff’s efforts to restore remote access services, and the City Council may reconvene to:
a. Adjourn or continue the meeting;
Exhibit A
b. Extend the recess to allow staff more time to make a good faith effort to restore remote access services; or
c. Continue the open session portion of the meeting by adopting, by roll call vote, the following or a substantially similar finding:
“The City of Ripon has made good faith efforts to restore telephonic or internet service in accordance with its adopted policy, and the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the public interest in remote public access.”
Upon adoption of the finding, the City Council may continue the open session portion of the meeting despite the fact that remote access services have not been restored.
7. Recordkeeping
If a service disruption occurs during a meeting subject to the requirements of this Policy, the City Clerk shall enter a brief statement into the meeting minutes, including:
The nature and time of the service disruption;
The time the meeting was reconvened (if applicable);
Any finding adopted pursuant to Section 7.
8. Response to Members of the Public Disrupting a Meeting If the Presiding Officer or their designee becomes aware of a member of the public who is attending the meeting through remote access services or in person and is disrupting the meeting or otherwise preventing other members of the public from attending or observing the meeting remotely or in-person:
a. The Presiding Officer or their designee shall warn the person that they are disrupting the meeting and their failure to cease that behavior may result in their removal. b. If the person to whom the Presiding Officer or their designee gave the above warning persists in disrupting the meeting, the Presiding Officer may order staff to:
i. mute or otherwise limit the individual’s ability to disrupt the meeting, while allowing the individual to continue to observe and attend the meeting; or ii. remove the individual from the meeting.
c. Any person engaging in the use of force or a true threat of force may be subject to immediate expulsion from the meeting.