Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law (October 2025) a bill that requires municipalities to upgrade their equipment for open meetings. Senate Bill 707 would entail better public access in the form of two-way participation, captioning, and language-translation requirements that would take effect on July 1, 2026.

    An April 8 staff report to the Town Council by Administrative Services Director Katie Bruner and Town Clerk Amy Heavener stated, “The public must be able to attend meetings and participate remotely and provide comments in real time via a ‘two-way telephonic’ or ‘two-way audiovisual platform.’ A two-way telephonic service is one that does not require internet access and allows participants to dial a telephone number to listen and verbally participate. A two-way audiovisual platform is defined as 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 (e.g., Zoom).”

    Currently, neither the Council Chambers nor the Pear Conference Room is equipped to meet SB 707 demands. As such, staff contacted Silicon Connections, LLC, Moraga’s technology provider, to put together a cost-upgrade proposal. Some of the equipment changes involve decommissioning existing wired microphones and the TriCaster production console, installing new cameras, a wireless microphone system, a Zoom Room Controller Computer, a public comment countdown timer, a Zoom-to-YouTube live streaming via Zoom cloud, and more for a total cost of $89,093.

    Silicon Connections would install the equipment during times when the Council Chambers and the Pear Conference Room are not in use. They would also provide training to town staff during the system’s learning phase.

    Adding in a contingency amount of $5,907, the Town Council authorized a go-forward agreement for a total amount not to exceed $95,000. Staff noted that there are sufficient funds available in the Town’s Public, Educational, and Government Access (PEG) Fund to pay for the technology upgrades.

    Council Member Steve Woehleke noted that the Town Council meetings are held in an area that has space constraints, and that making the meetings more accessible through enhanced off-site viewing would be a positive move.

    “We don’t like unfunded mandates,” stated Mayor Kerry Hillis. “This is $100,000. We had a healthy discussion on hiring an economic development consultant which was $40,000 less, and that’s changed the entire direction of our town. This is to add some cameras, which I’m glad that there’s a happy positive that can be brought out of it, but this is not money we would have spent otherwise.” 

    Hillis added, “I’m also personally concerned with the prevalence of Zoom Bombing.” Zoom Bombing is the unwanted or disruptive intrusion of uninvited participants into a video conference that can result in chat disruption.