Huff Calls for Transperency After Passage of Public Records Act Bill

Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, is speaking against a trailer bill passed as part of the state budget package last week that critics say will gut the California Public Records Act.

Assembly Bill 76 was passed by the state Legislature last week and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown.

The bill would make compliance with some portions of the California Public Records Act requests from citizens optional for local governments. 

Under the legislation, local governments would no longer be mandated to respond to requests for documents within 10 days, help those looking for records who were unsure of what they were searching for, or furnish electronic versions of records when available, according to the bill.

The bill encourages them to follow the provisions of the act as “best practices” but would not mandate them to do so.  A local agency who does not wish to follow best practices would announce it orally at its next public meeting and then on an annual basis after that. 

In response to criticism by some of the bill, Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, said today that the Legislature would vote on Senate Bill 71 Thursday morning.  The new legislation would include all of the measures in the original trailer bill except for changes related to the California Public Records Act and the Local Agency Ethics Mandates.

“To be clear, this means that the California Public Records Act will remain intact without any changes as part of the budget – consistent with the Assembly’s original action,”  Pérez said in a statement. 

Huff issued the following statement about the bill and Democratic efforts to reverse course: 

“Our job as lawmakers is to gain the trust of the public by making it easier for people to understand at all times how government will impact them. Because we believe Californians deserve to have their voices heard, Senate Republicans requested during budget negotiations that all budget trailer bills receive a public hearing in Committee and that they be in print for at least 72 hours.

“Republicans have serious concerns about 'trust us' being a governing philosophy, particularly when the Democratic Super-Majority uses its power to do things such as suspending the rules just to avoid having budget bills heard in the budget committee.”