Today's Law As Amended


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SB-115 Public Utilities Commission: Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act: judicial review.(2013-2014)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) On June 3, 2014, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, in Disenhouse v. Peevey (2014) 226 Cal.App.4th 1096, held that an interested person desiring to enforce the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act against the Public Utilities Commission must do so by filing a petition for writ of mandamus in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal and may not do so by filing an action for injunctive relief in the superior court.
(b) The intent of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act is that actions of state agencies be taken openly and that their deliberation be conducted openly.
(c) The people’s right to remain informed so that they may retain control over the instruments of government that they have created is not less of a right for some agencies than for other agencies, nor shall the people’s ability to enforce the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act be more hampered for some agencies than for other agencies.

SEC. 2.

 Section 1759 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

1759.
 (a) No court of this state, except the Supreme Court and the court of appeal, to the extent specified in this article, shall have jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct, or annul any order or decision of the commission or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with the commission in the performance of its official duties, as provided by law and the rules of court.
(b) The writ of mandamus shall lie from the Supreme Court and from the court of appeal to the commission in all proper cases as prescribed in Section 1085 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
(c) This section does not apply to an action brought against the commission to enforce the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section 11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), which action may be brought in the superior court.