Central Valley News

Central Valley meeting agendas

Where each governing body posts its agendas, and how far ahead.

We track 23 bodies so far, out of an estimated 300 to 500 or more across the region. Thirteen of the 23 publish a stated posting lead time. The other ten are marked "not established" rather than assumed.

Counties

CountyAgenda portalPosted
FresnoLegistarAt least 72 hours ahead, online and at the entrance window of the Hall of Records
KernBoard of Supervisors meetings, current agenda as a PDFNot established
San JoaquinIQM2 calendarNot established
StanislausAgendas by year, 1999 to present, current agendaAt least 72 hours ahead
TularePrimeGov portalAt least 72 hours ahead. Pre-registration to speak opens at the same time.
MercedBoard agendasTypically the Wednesday before a Tuesday meeting, "but in no event later than 72 hours"
KingsCalendar, agenda and action summary, past packetsThe Friday before the Tuesday meeting. The hour is disputed, see below.
MaderaeSCRIBE portalNot established

Cities

CityAgenda portalPosted
FresnoLegistar and agendas.fresno.govNot established as a number of hours. See the note below on the fifth business day.
BakersfieldeSCRIBENot established. The city states only that "Agendas are available prior to the meetings."
StocktonLegistar and GranicusBy 5:00 p.m. on the Friday before the Tuesday meeting
ModestoCity Council agendas and minutes, backed by OnBase Agenda OnlineAt least 72 hours ahead
VisaliaLegistarThe Friday before the Monday meeting, and posted at City Hall
MercedLegistarAt least 72 hours ahead
ClovisCivicClerk portalNot established
TurlockCivicClerk portalNot established

School districts

DistrictAgenda portalPosted
Fresno UnifiedDiligent Community and board agendas and minutesThree days before the meeting
Kern High School DistrictBoardDocsAt least 72 hours for a regular meeting, 24 hours for a special meeting. Posted at the District Office, at each school site, and online.
Stockton UnifiedDiligent CommunityNot established
Modesto City SchoolsSimbliThe Friday afternoon before each meeting, and in the Superintendent's Office at 426 Locust Street
Clovis UnifiedBoard agendasNot established
Visalia UnifiedDiligent Community and the district siteAt least 72 hours for a regular meeting, 24 hours for a special meeting. Posted at the District Office, on the district site, and on Diligent.

Regional agencies

BodyAgenda portalPosted
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control DistrictGoverning Board, which lists agendas and minutes by date back to 2000Not established

What "posted ahead" means

California's open meetings law sets a floor for how far in advance a regular meeting agenda must be posted. What is listed above is each body's own stated practice where we could confirm it, which is what actually matters if you are planning to attend or to comment.

Seventy-two hours is the pattern. Fresno County, Stanislaus County, Tulare County, Modesto, Merced city, Kern High School District, and Visalia Unified all state at least 72 hours, which reflects the state law floor for a regular meeting. Where a body states nothing, 72 hours is the reasonable expectation. But a special meeting runs on 24 hours, and that is exactly when something contentious tends to be scheduled. Two bodies here state the 24-hour special-meeting rule explicitly, both of them school districts.

Six bodies post earlier than the floor, which matters if you want time to read a packet properly:

BodyPosts
Merced CountyWednesday before a Tuesday meeting
Kings CountyFriday before a Tuesday meeting
StocktonBy 5:00 p.m. Friday before a Tuesday meeting
VisaliaFriday before a Monday meeting
Modesto City SchoolsFriday afternoon before the meeting
Fresno UnifiedThree days before the meeting

Tulare County ties two things together that are usually separate. Its statement reads: "The agenda and pre-registration are available at least 72 hours prior to the meeting." Since Tulare requires registration to speak, the moment the agenda appears is also the moment you can sign up, and those are the same 72-hour window.

Kings County's own two pages disagree on the hour

Both of these are Kings County pages, published by the same board:

They agree on the day and disagree on the hour by two hours. We are publishing "the Friday before the Tuesday meeting" and recording the disagreement rather than picking one. If you need the packet at a specific hour on that Friday, plan for 5:00 p.m.

Fresno's fifth business day is a different deadline, and it is the useful one

The City of Fresno does not state how far ahead its agenda is posted; its municipal code says only that the agenda "shall be posted and prepared in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act." But the same code section sets a deadline that matters more if you want something on the agenda rather than just wanting to read it: an item must reach the City Clerk "prior to 5 p.m. of the fifth business day prior to the Council meeting" (Fresno Municipal Code section 2-303(a), source).

Those are two different clocks and it is easy to confuse them. Seventy-two hours is when you can read the agenda. The fifth business day is when the agenda closes.

A note on the portals

These 23 bodies run on ten different vendors, which is more fragmentation than it looks like from any single city.

VendorBodies
Legistar5 (Fresno County, Fresno, Stockton, Visalia, Merced city)
Diligent Community3 (Fresno Unified, Stockton Unified, Visalia Unified)
CivicClerk2 (Clovis, Turlock)
eSCRIBE2 (Madera County, Bakersfield)
PrimeGov1 (Tulare County)
IQM21 (San Joaquin County)
Granicus meeting portal1 (Kern County)
BoardDocs1 (Kern High School District)
Simbli, by eBOARDsolutions1 (Modesto City Schools)
OnBase Agenda Online1 (Modesto city)
The government's own website, no third-party portal5 (Stanislaus County, Merced County, Kings County, Clovis Unified, the air district)

Granicus owns Legistar, PrimeGov, IQM2, and the Granicus meeting portal, so that one vendor family covers 8 of the 23 bodies here, and Madera County's older archives sit on two more Granicus products (PrimeGov for 2022 to 2025, MinuteTraq for 2005 to 2022) even though its current portal is eSCRIBE.

Legistar in particular carries item-level history, so if you are following a single ordinance, contract, or land-use case you can track it across meetings rather than hunting meeting by meeting. It is the most useful of these portals and also the least obvious.

Two portal migrations happened recently and both leave a split archive:

Verified 2026-08-15. Portal locations were checked on that date. "Not established" means we have not confirmed it, not that it does not exist. The body's own page is authoritative.