SB 255: State government: Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

Existing law creates within the state government the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls that consists of 17 members, and specifies that one member is the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare in the Department of Industrial Relations. Existing law abolished the Division of Industrial Welfare and transferred the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction of the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare to the Labor Commissioner, who is the Chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

This bill would specify that the Labor Commissioner instead of the Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare is a member of the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

Existing law also provides the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls with the powers and authority necessary to carry out its duties imposed by law, including, but not limited to, to accept any gifts, donations, grants, or bequests for all or any of the purposes of that law. Existing law creates the Women and Girls Fund in the State Treasury to carry out the law in support of the commission upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Bagley-Keene Act), generally requires, with specified exceptions for authorized closed sessions, that the meetings of state bodies be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend.

This bill would specify that the commission may also conduct fundraising activities that may require a payment or purchase to attend, and would exempt from the Bagley-Keene Act the commission at a fundraising event held or organized by the commission, provided that a majority of members do not discuss among themselves any item of business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission, and any meetings conducted solely for purposes of raising funds for the Women and Girls Fund, provided that no other item of business that is within the subject matter of the commission is discussed, deliberated, or acted upon.