Let’s put teeth in state Public Records Act
When 36 people died in the nation’s deadliest fire since 2003, Oakland’s mayor promised full transparency about the infamous Ghost Ship inferno. Instead, city officials ran roughshod over the state Public Records Act, delaying release of documents for weeks until we threatened to sue.
When the Sacramento Bee sought records about former UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, the university stalled. And as the state Department of Water Resources spends $275 million to repair the Oroville Dam, it has refused to release the recommendations of an independent board of consultants. The list goes on, and on. It’s time to put teeth in the state Public Records Act. That’s why the Assembly Appropriations Committee should keep alive a bill by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, to strengthen the law.
Oh, the irony: On Friday we will learn whether Bonta’s bill, AB 1479, promoting government transparency has survived Sacramento’s secretive process for killing legislation.
In the Senate and Assembly, bills that involve expenditures are placed on “suspense” and then the Appropriations Committee of each house determines which bills will be allowed to proceed.
The theory is that the committee can review all the spending bills at once and ensure they’re not too costly. The reality is that the decisions are made behind closed doors, often for reasons that have nothing to do with cost, while sparing individual legislators any accountability for the outcome.
Bonta’s bill has minimal cost. It would allow a judge to impose a civil penalty of up to $5,000 against a government agency that egregiously violates the Public Records Act.
The penalty could be for withholding records that are clearly subject to public disclosure; unreasonably delaying release of records; assessing unreasonable or unauthorized fees; or failing to act in good faith.
While the American Civil Liberties Union, the state’s newspapers and First Amendment groups have lined up in support, cities and counties are whining about the cost. Of course, there would be no cost under Bonta’s bill if they would simply follow the law.
Instead, local governments continue to levy illegal charges for records, according to a committee analysis of Bonta’s bill. Some counties around the state still refuse to release public employee names and salaries — a decade after the state Supreme Court ruled such records must be disclosed.
And, last year, the San Diego Union-Tribune reviewed records requests submitted to 107 local agencies and found more than 25 percent missed the legal deadlines for responding to inquiries.
We wish this wasn’t needed. We wish local governments would follow the law. Instead, too many continue to thumb their nose at transparency. That must change.