Existing law establishes the Government Operations Agency (GovOps), and establishes within the agency the Department of Technology. Existing law requires the Department of Technology to conduct, in coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems appropriate, a comprehensive inventory of all high-risk automated decision systems that have been proposed for use, development, or procurement by, or are being used, developed, or procured by, any state agency. Existing law defines, for these purposes, an “automated decision system” as, among other things, a computational process that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons.

Existing law authorizes local agencies, including cities and counties, to provide welfare, employment, and other public social services. Existing law also authorizes the legislative body of any county or city, pursuant to specified procedures, to adopt ordinances that, among other things, regulate the use of buildings, structures, and land as between industry, business, residences, open space, and other purposes.

This bill would impose certain restrictions on the use of an automated decision system by a local agency to confer supportive services, permits, or licenses, as specified. Among those restrictions, the bill would include a prohibition on using an output from the system as the sole basis for an adverse eligibility or benefit determination affecting a natural person, except as specified. The bill would require the local agency to verify the accuracy of the system’s outputs and to promote nondiscrimination in its use, as specified. The bill would require the local agency’s governing board to provide audits or other quality control review of the outputs, as specified, to assure acceptable accuracy.

This bill would authorize GovOps to develop, adopt, and make publicly available guidance for a local agency’s use of automated decision systems. The bill would require GovOps to notify the Joint Legislative Budget Committee before issuing the guidance. The bill would require GovOps to provide technical assistance to local agencies upon request. The bill would define terms for purposes of its provisions and would make related findings and declarations.