Existing law provides that if a city council member is absent without permission from all regular city council meetings for a specified number of days from the last regular meeting they attended, their office becomes vacant and shall be filled as any other vacancy.

This bill would prohibit a city from refusing permission for a council member to take absences for parental leave and would exclude parental leave from counting toward the number of allowed absences allotted to each council member. The bill would prohibit a city from requiring a council member to request approval for their parental leave at a public hearing.

The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.