By Katy Grimes

A new budget trailer bill will gut the state Public Records Act at the local level. The Public Records Act provides Californians the ability to obtain documents about state and local government actions and hold government officials accountable.

What special interest group would have the chutzpah to push for a law to prevent members of the public from obtaining records from local governments?

Until June 12, 2013, California Assembly Bill 76 had been an empty shell for a “budget trailer bill” to be passed as a supplement to the 2013-2014 California state budget.

“Union fingerprints are all over Assembly Bill 76,” said Kevin Dayton, CEO of the Dayton Policy Institute and Labor Issues Solutions, LLC. “Many of the substantive policy changes in the bill are related to union objectives. These proposals have not been considered in public hearings and are too obscure and complicated to recognize unless you are already familiar with the related labor issues.”

Trailer bill process

The empty budget trailer bills, called “spot bills,” usually sit on a shelf until the last minute they are needed, and usually on the day the budget is due, June 15. They are not vetted and don’t go through the usual public legislative committee process. Legislators are asked to vote on these bills, often having just seen them for the first time.

While both parties have been guilty of abusing the trailer bill process, the Democratic Party has been completely controlling the Legislature since 1996.

Republicans used to sneak pork into trailers bills, but Democrats consistently use the trailer bill process to whittle away at Democracy.

The Department of Finance explains trailer bills: “There are generally budget changes proposed by the Governor or the Legislature which necessitate changes to existing law in order to implement the budget changes. If this is the case, separate bills are introduced to implement the change. These budget implementation bills are called “trailer bills” and are heard concurrently with the Budget Bill. By law, all proposed statutory changes necessary to implement the Governor’s Budget are due to the Legislature by February 1.”

But the process has been abused, with trailer bills being used as a conduit for individual pieces of legislation that did not make it into the budget, or for legislation that could not make it through the committee process.

Gutting the Public Records Act

“Legislative Democrats approved a trailer bill, Assembly Bill 76, as part of the majority vote budget plan enacted on Friday that suspends key provisions of the California Public Records Act relating to the ability of taxpayers to request government data and documents from local governments,” Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, explained in a press statement. “If Governor Brown signs the measure into law, the new provisions would impact cities, counties and special districts throughout the state.

“Gutting the Public Records Act is a dream come true for scandal-ridden local governments such as the city of Bell.  Under this law, bureaucrats would be able to shield corruption and scandal from taxpayers. Time and time again, the majority party has pulled out all the stops to block Californians from knowing how their government is operating.  California’s right to know should not be compromised because the majority party continues to overspend.”

If the Governor signs this measure into law, Logue plans to introduce legislation to restore the Public Records Act.

Specifically, AB 76 would:

* Make optional provisions in current law requiring local government officials to respond to requests from the public for public documents within 10 days of the request;

* Encourage local governments to adhere to the current provisions in law as “best practices,” but give them the ability to announce annually if they are suspending these requirements;

* Eliminate requirements that local government officials must help citizens complete their Public Records Act requests by disclosing what records are available to be requested; and

* Allow local governments to decide whether to provide an electronic copy of documents or provide paper documents.

California receives “F” grade for lack of transparency

Logue noted that California was recently given an “F” grade by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group for its lack of transparency in government spending, ranking 49th out of the 50 states.

He said that the budget trailer bill was one in a series of moves by Democrats to make government less open and less accessible to the people.  Earlier this year, Democrats passed dozens of empty so-called budget spot bills that paved the way for the type of backroom budget deals that included the provision to undermine the Public Records Act.  They also blocked Republican-authored legislation to make the legislative and budget processes more transparent.

“This latest scheme to undermine the Public Records Act will effectively shut the people out of their government if it becomes law,” said Logue.  “Access to public data and records is key to empowering the people to make their voices heard.  Every elected official — regardless of party — should embrace openness and transparency as our key governing principle.  Governor Brown should veto this offensive legislation and reaffirm the state’s commitment to an accessible and accountable government for the taxpayers it serves.”

The Assembly announced late Wednesday it intended to pass the bill on without the records act changes, but only after receiving blistering heat from Republicans and editorial boards around the state.

The Assembly will vote Thursday to annul AB 76 or SB 71, the budget bills which would  change the state records act.

By KATY GRIMES

Political gamesmanship is as old as man and politics. The levels of gamesmanship, however, can either remain at mere power struggles and turf wars, or escalate to abuses of power.

With 78 empty budget bills now in the hands of the legislative Democrats, many at the Capitol are questioning why Democrats are trying so hard to prove that they are in power.

Legislators could take a lesson from Dick and Jane, who taught school children manners, rules, common decency and, “Before We Read, We Look and See.”

‘We Work, We Play’

On March 8, the Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, moved 40 spot budget bills — empty bills awaiting bill language — from the budget committee to the Senate floor without holding hearings on the bills.

Thursday, Assembly Democrats did the same, and passed 37 empty budget spot bills from the Assembly Budget Committee to the Senate, outraging Assembly Republicans.

As I wrote March 9 in Shenanigans in CA Senate:

“This may seem kind of esoteric, but the impacts are real. These actions are serious shenanigans from elected politicians who know better.

“By avoiding the legislative process, which requires committee hearings for all bills, it is clear that the goal of this effort is to set up a secretive last minute budget vote, lacking the promised transparency and public involvement.

“Now that Propositions 25 and 26 are constitutional law, (the majority vote by the Legislature to pass a budget, and supermajority vote to pass fees and taxes by the Legislature, respectively), the Democrats are taking major policy changes and potential tax increases by dropping them in trailer bill language.”

‘Days and Deeds’

During the Assembly session Thursday, Budget Committee Vice Chairman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, was critical of Assembly Democrats for passing the 37 spot bills. “These bills will be vehicles for covert backroom deals, most of which will have nothing to do with the budget,” Nielsen said after the hearing.

The empty bills contain no details, and will be passed on to the Senate, where amendments can be adopted and brought back to the Assembly. Assembly members will not be able to make amendments to the bills, and can only vote on them. Or not.

Ironically, last week was “Transparency Week” in the Legislature, with every lawmaker signing on to a resolution touting transparency measures.

“How ironic, last week we had transparency week and today we have all these bills that are the antithesis of transparency,” said Nielsen. “By voting for the 37 spot bills that mean absolutely nothing, the Democrats have disgraced the peoples’ legislative process.”

“This is an abuse of the 50 + 1 majority vote for the budget,” Nielsen said, meaning 50 percent of the chamber plus one more vote. He added that the current process of passing budget spot bills only serves to empower majority Democrats on the Budget Conference Committee to drop their own budget plans at the 11th hour.  This does not allow for committee hearings to be held, nor does it give the public the opportunity to review or weigh in on the plan before the entire Legislature is asked to cast a vote.

‘”Go Away, Spot’

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, has proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment 13, which would require an independent third party, the state controller, to review estimated revenues and expenditures and certify that a budget passed by the Legislature is balanced before it can be signed by the governor.

In a statement yesterday after the 37 budget spot bills were passed, Nestande said, “The method of the Assembly and Senate passing their own budgets and then reconciling the differences used to be the budget process in the Legislature many years ago.

“Under ACA 13, if the Controller does not certify the budget as balanced, the Legislature will not be allowed to adjourn.”

‘People and Progress’

“All of these spot bills are new venues for all kinds of games that will be played and things will be introduced that we don’t know anything about,” said Nielsen during his floor speech objecting to passage of the bills.  “There will be no in-depth policy committee discussions on these issues; what we’ve got here is governing in the dark of night.”

Nielsen told other legislators that, if they cared about the integrity of the legislative process, to vote “no” or abstain from voting on the 37 bills. Despite his plea, the spot bills were passed on a party-line vote.

“The public should be outraged, the media should be outraged,” said Nielsen. “Democrats are running roughshod over the process, and ignoring the constitution. They are abusing the process as well as voters.”