Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Politicians Like to Keep Us in the Dark
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
March 10, 2019

Share

Every year, governors and state legislators load up bills that supposedly implement the state budget with all sorts of extracurricular provisions benefiting those to whom they owe favors.

Opinion

Dan Walters
CALmatters Commentary

Two new examples of the hostility to airing the public’s business have arisen, both dealing with another state law, the Public Records Act (PRA), which, with a few specified exceptions, requires official documents to be public.

They use these “trailer bills” because they can be, and often have been, passed very quickly after being drafted, thereby concealing their goodies from public scrutiny until they are safely enacted.

After many years of such shenanigans, some reformers finally placed a measure on the ballot to require 72-hour notice before bills can have their final votes. The Capitol’s politicians didn’t like it, and have managed to partially bypass it, but it’s still on the books.

It’s an example of how California politicians pay lip service to open government, but fundamentally prefer secrecy.

Two new examples of the hostility to airing the public’s business have arisen, both dealing with another state law, the Public Records Act (PRA), which, with a few specified exceptions, requires official documents to be public.

One is Senate Bill 615 by Sen. Ben Hueso, a Chula Vista Democrat, which would make it much more difficult to compel state and local agencies to comply with PRA requests.

It’s not uncommon for agencies to stonewall or drag their feet on requests for documents under the law, especially when they might be embarrassing to officialdom.

Records of Police Misconduct to Be Made Public

The PRA doesn’t have an automatic enforcement mechanism, so one of the few ways journalists and others can force the issue is through the courts.

Sunshine Week

Hueso’s bill, however, would compel those requesting documents to go through a series of preliminary hoops, force them to prove in court that agencies stalled compliance “knowingly, willfully and without substantial justification,” and make it more difficult to collect legal costs from agencies that lose lawsuits.

Hueso’s office says the bill, introduced at the request of the San Diego city attorney’s office, is aimed at streamlining the PRA process, but those who employ the law say it’s an obvious attempt to undermine the law.

James Ewert, a lawyer for the California News Publishers Association, told Voice of San Diego, the local news site that blew the whistle on Hueso’s measure, “If Sen. Hueso is trying to make it more difficult for members of the public to get info about their government, this will be a smashing success.”

The second assault on the PRA is being waged by another Democrat, Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

Although a new law requires records of police misconduct to be made public, Becerra has stiffed requests for information about the investigators in his office and is threatening legal, or even criminal, action against one journalistic organization that managed to obtain some records.

Becerra Is Saying We Shouldn’t Know That Officers Have Committed Crimes

UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program used the PRA to obtain nearly 12,000 names of law enforcement officers or applicants who had committed crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder.

“If you do not intend to comply with our request, the department can take legal action.”Department of Justice

Those convictions themselves are matters of public record, and the compilation came from the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) via a PRA request.

Becerra then demanded that the records be returned or destroyed, saying they shouldn’t have been released, and warned that “unauthorized receipt or possession” of the data is a misdemeanor.

“If you do not intend to comply with our request, the department can take legal action,” the Department of Justice told the journalists.

So Becerra is telling us that we shouldn’t know that thousands of police officers have committed crimes and is threatening to prosecute those who defy him.

Sunshine, it’s been said, is the best disinfectant for official misconduct – but obviously Hueso and Becerra would like to keep us in the dark.

CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

DON'T MISS

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

DON'T MISS

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

DON'T MISS

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

DON'T MISS

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

DON'T MISS

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

DON'T MISS

How Trump Tariffs Could Upend California Farms, Wine Businesses, and Ports

DON'T MISS

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

UP NEXT

Given Its Failures, Can California Manage a Transition to a Carbon-Free Future?

UP NEXT

Over a Century Later, California May Need Another Revolt Against Its Utility Companies

UP NEXT

California’s Economy Was Already Sluggish Before Trump’s Global Tariffs

UP NEXT

Will Fresno Unified Sacrifice Another Generation of Students? The Choice Is Ours

UP NEXT

What if There’s No Way to Stop Trump’s Approach to Power?

UP NEXT

Zakaria Draws Parallels Between Trump’s Tariffs, Failed 1930s Economic Policies

UP NEXT

Americans Haven’t Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion

UP NEXT

I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future

UP NEXT

Why Is It So Expensive to Build Affordable Homes in CA? It Takes Too Long

UP NEXT

What Some Animals Endure Before We Eat Them

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

12 hours ago

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

13 hours ago

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

13 hours ago

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

13 hours ago

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

14 hours ago

How Trump Tariffs Could Upend California Farms, Wine Businesses, and Ports

14 hours ago

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

15 hours ago

Judge Partly Blocks Trump Order Seeking to Overhaul US Elections

15 hours ago

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

16 hours ago

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

16 hours ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Yastrzemski and Matt Chapman homered as the San Francisco Giants rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 on Thursday ...

10 hours ago

10 hours ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

10 hours ago

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

11 hours ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during an 'Unleashing American Energy' event at the Department of Energy in Washington, U.S., June 29, 2017. (REUTERS File)
12 hours ago

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

13 hours ago

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

Chickens sit at a poultry farm. March 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo)
13 hours ago

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

13 hours ago

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

Candi, GV Wire's Adoptable Cat of the Week
14 hours ago

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend