BILL ANALYSIS AB 1585 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1585 (Accountability and Administrative Review Committee) As Introduced July 9, 2009 2/3 vote. Urgency BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Hayashi, Emmerson, |Ayes:|De Leon, Conway, Ammiano, | | |Conway, Eng, Hernandez, | | | | |Nava, Niello, | |Charles Calderon, Coto, | | |John A. Perez, Ruskin, | |Davis, | | |Smyth | |Fuentes, Hall, Harkey, | | | | |Miller, | | | | |Nielsen, John A. Perez, | | | | |Skinner, | | | | |Solorio, Audra | | | | |Strickland, Torlakson, | | | | |Hill | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Revises the procedure for mandatory and voluntary reporting requirements and deletes obsolete reports. Specifically, this bill : 1)Authorizes the Legislative Counsel Bureau (LC) to refer a requester of an agency report to the California State Library as the final repository of public information. 2)Requires bills introduced or amended in either house of the Legislature requiring a state agency to submit a report on any subject to either house of the Legislature or LC to include a provision repealing or making inoperative the reporting requirement no later than a date four years following the date upon which bill is in enacted, commencing on and after January 1, 2010, as specified. 3)Requires LC, in drafting a bill for introduction or amendments imposing a reporting requirement to include a provision that repeals or makes obsolete the reporting requirement, four years after the date on which the requirement becomes operative, unless the person requesting the bill or amendment AB 1585 Page 2 directs LC to do otherwise, as specified. 4)Requires LC to maintain and update an electronic list (list) of all reports that state and local agencies are required to prepare and file with the Governor or Legislature, as specified, removing obsolete or duplicate reports from the list, and as directed by this bill, or a subsequent statute that further requires LC to remove reports included in the list. 5)States that the requirement to delete a report pursuant to this bill shall not prohibit LC from including the report on a future publication of the list, if the report is required by law to be listed. 6)Defines "obsolete report" to mean a report that has not been completed and filed and for which the date that the report was required to be completed and files was four or more years in the past. 7)Requires LC to delete approximately 1,200 reports from the list. 8) Contains an urgency clause, allowing this bill to take effect immediately upon enactment. EXISTING LAW requires: 1)Or requests various state and local agencies to submit reports on specified topics to the Legislature, the Governor, or both. 2)A report that is to be made to the Members of either house of the Legislature to instead be submitted to LC, the Secretary of the Senate, and Chief Clerk of the Assembly. 3)LC to prepare and publish a list of all the reports that state and local agencies are required to submit, and upon request, to provide aid and assistance to any Member of the Legislature with respect to a bill, resolution, or measure, including drafting a bill into its proper form. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations AB 1585 Page 3 Committee: 1)Minor, absorbable costs for the workload associated with LC updating the current list and flagging future listings with a four-year sunset date. 2)The majority of the reports listed in the bill are obsolete or are not being produced by the departments, therefore any savings associated with this legislation will likely be minor. To the extent any of the reports on this listed are currently being produced however, there could be minor General Fund or special fund workload savings for the affected departments. COMMENTS : This bill, authored by the Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee (Committee), revises the method for receiving and cataloging mandated and voluntary reports by LC and deletes more than 1,200 obsolete reporting requirements from the list of reports maintained by LC. More than 160 governmental entities, spanning from agencies, commissions, and boards, are included in this bill. This bill is a result of a hearing held by the Committee in February of 2009, examining reporting requirements of state agencies and compliance in fulfilling those requirements. A Web site is maintained by LC pursuant to the requirements of Government Code Section 10242.5 which named LC as the repository for all legislative reports. Government Code Section requires state and local agencies to submit reports to LC, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly. To fulfill this requirement, agencies send hard copies or electronic copies of reports to LC. When a report is received by the LC, the title, date received and an URL for the report (if provided by the agency) are entered on the Agency Reports Web site. Hard copies of reports are then sent to the Government Publications Section of the State Library for cataloging and retention. Electronic copies are sent via email to the Government Publications Section of the State Library where they are printed, cataloged and retained. Each report must include a one-page summary of its contents, which LC is required to distribute to each member of the appropriate house of the Legislature within two working days of its receipt. Notice of receipt shall also be recorded in the AB 1585 Page 4 journal of the appropriate house. The Web site ( http://www.agencyreports.ca.gov/ ) contains a list of all reports that state and local agencies are required or requested by law to prepare and file with the Governor, the Legislature, or both, in the future or within the preceding year. LC staff review chaptered bills, ballot propositions passed at elections, and the Legislative Analyst's Supplemental Report of the Budget to determine new report requirements and changes to report requirements. The Web site is updated accordingly. The Committee states, "Unfortunately, all this only works when a report is completed if it is sent to Legislative Counsel. It does not work when the report is given solely to the committee or legislator that requested it although it is complete. The public never sees the information unless it is provided to Legislative Counsel which records it and forwards it to the State Library. "There is no way to know which reports were not completed due to a moratorium, as there was no requirement for Legislative Counsel to be advised. As a result, the records mean almost nothing when the public goes to the web site to see what reports are due and what reports are completed. "At the time of our hearing, there were nearly 3,000 mandated reports due according to the Legislative Counsel site. In our review, we found reports had been completed and submitted in accordance with the law yet Legislative Counsel had no record. We found reports that were deferred during funding moratoriums listed as due. We found duplicate listings for the same reports. We found reports listed as due annually that have not been done for years because the program is no longer in existence or it is not funded, or the responsible department knows it is no longer wanted but the requirement remains. "The best example is a report required annually by the Secretary of State to report to the Governor disclosing all expenditures and activities. The last time the report was completed was in 1936 and it lists the number of reams of colored voting paper purchased, and other elements no longer considered relevant. There are reports still required relative to Y2K. There are AB 1585 Page 5 reports still required relative to the 1979 Arab oil embargo." Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B. & P. / (916) 319-3301 FN: 0002561