Section 8578 Of Article 1. The Board From California Water Code >> Division 5. >> Part 4. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 1.
8578
. (a) For the purposes of this section, "ex parte communication"
means any oral or written communication outside of a noticed board
meeting concerning matters, other than purely procedural matters,
regarding any of the following:
(1) An application that has been submitted to the board and has
been determined to be complete by the executive officer.
(2) An enforcement action.
(3) Any other quasi-judicial matter requiring board action, after
the matter has been placed on the board's agenda and notice of the
meeting has been provided pursuant to Section 11125 of the Government
Code.
(b) (1) A board member appointed pursuant to subdivision (b) of
Section 8551 shall not participate in an ex parte communication with
any person or organization with an interest in board decisions, nor
any person representing a person or organization with an interest in
board decisions, excluding a staff member of the board acting in his
or her official capacity, who intends to influence the decision of a
board member on a matter before the board.
(2) If an ex parte communication occurs, the board member shall
notify the interested party that a full disclosure of the ex parte
communication shall be entered in the board's record.
(3) Communications cease to be ex parte communications when the
board member or the person who engaged in the communication with the
board member fully discloses the communication and requests in
writing that it be placed in the board's official record of the
proceeding.
(c) Notwithstanding Section 11425.10 of the Government Code, the
ex parte communications provisions of the Administrative Procedure
Act (Article 7 (commencing with Section 11430.10) of Chapter 4.5 of
Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) do not apply
to proceedings of the board to which this section applies.