California Website Requirement

Passed in late 2018, Senate Bill 929 is a law requiring all independent special districts in California to create and maintain a website by January 2020, with four distinct pieces of information posted. (Healthcare districts have additional posting requirements.)

Are all special districts required to comply?

SB 929 only applies to independent special districts in California (not dependent districts governed by a city or county). Districts who face a hardship and simply cannot comply (due to lack of internet access, for example) can adopt a resolution of hardship each year - more on that below.

We’re a small district, can't we just ignore this?

No. There is no exemption just because a district is small, or fully volunteer - and even if you do decide to go the exemption route, you need to make sure to do it properly. We'll talk more about the hardship exemption in a bit, but we'd first like you to consider a different question: if it were simple and affordable to comply, is there a benefit to your district, or your community, for your to maintain a website?  Is there value in communicating the important and vital work you do? 

This is a state mandate, can we get reimbursed for the cost of compliance?

Sadly, no. Since they tucked this into the Public Records Act, SB 929 is considered an unfunded state mandate and they are not required to reimburse you for the cost to comply. (Just like AB 2257 - anything in the PRA or Brown Act is exempt from mandate reimbursements.) :(

So, on that inspiring note! If you have SB 929 questions, go ahead and schedule 15 minutes with our special district website guru.

1. Contact information for the district

The bill text does not give specifics on the type of contact information, so this might include your district's mailing or physical address, phone number, email address, etc. The point is to make sure the public knows how to reach out if they want to communicate with you.

2. The current agenda

Under The Brown Act, special districts are required to post each agenda for regular meetings 72 hours in advance (24 for special meetings), including on your website if you have one. AB 2257 added additional requirements a few years back: the agenda must be searchable and platform-independent, and there must be a link on the home page that opens the agenda directly when clicked. The link cannot be in a contextual menu (part of your drop down menu / navigation), but must be directly on the page. Grab helpful resources for compliance with AB 2257 here >

3. Financial Transaction Reports

Hopefully you're already sending these to the State Controller each year. To fulfill the website requirement, simply add the report to your site and update each year - or better yet, add a link to  https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/ to your site, and leave it there. This works! 

3. Compensation Reports

Again, you should be completing and sending these to the State Controller each year. To fulfill the website requirement, simply add the report to your site and update each year - or better yet, add a link to https://publicpay.ca.gov/ to your site, and leave it there - no need to update annually!

4. SB 272 Enterprise System Catalog

Ok, gonna apologize for this one in advance - one of the most confusing bills ever adopted into law. :(  SB272 requires all public agencies to create a catalog of any software they use that meets certain requirements (includes information about the public, among others). The good news is that we built a forever-free tool you can use to comply. Learn more or sign up here >

5. Healthcare District information

If you're a healthcare district, you have additional posting requirements (sorry!) These include things like listing your board members, your grant award policy, recipients of grants, and financial audits. Learn more from our slide presentation to the Association of Healthcare Districts.

If you're interested in more in-depth information, visit our SB 929 webinar page, where you can view a webinar recording, download a slide deck, and access many more helpful resources.