BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | ACR 148|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: ACR 148
Author: Chau (D), et al.
Amended: 5/26/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/9/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: California Law Revision Commission: studies
SOURCE: California Law Revision Commission
DIGEST: This resolution authorizes the California Law Revision
Commission (CLRC) to continue its studies on whether specified
laws should be revised; authorizes an additional study of the
California Public Records Act (CPRA); provides that before
commencing work on any project within the list of topics
authorized for study by the Legislature, the CLRC shall submit a
detailed description of the scope of work to the Senate and
Assembly Committees on Judiciary and any legislative policy
committee with jurisdiction over the study's subject matter; and
expressly allows the CLRC to provide copies of its
recommendations to members of a legislative policy committee and
invite CLRC staff to hearings for the purpose of explaining
recommendations and answering questions from committee members.
ANALYSIS:
ACR 148
Page 2
Existing law:
1)Authorizes the CLRC to study topics approved by concurrent
resolution of the Legislature.
2)Prohibits an employee or member of the CLRC, with respect to
any proposed legislation concerning matters assigned to the
Commission for study, to advocate for the passage or defeat of
the legislation by the Legislature or the approval or veto of
the legislation by the Governor or appear before any committee
of the Legislature unless requested to do so by the committee
or its chairperson.
3)Establishes CPRA.
4)Provides that, under the CPRA, public records are open to
inspection at all times during the office hours of the state
or local agency and every person has a right to inspect any
public record, except as provided.
This resolution:
1)Reauthorizes the CLRC's study of 23 specified topics.
2)Authorizes additionally the CLRC to study, report on, and
prepare recommended legislation as soon as possible,
considering the CLRC's preexisting duties and workload
demands, concerning the revision of the portions of the CPRA
and related provisions, and specifies that this legislation
shall accomplish all of the following objectives:
Reduce the length and complexity of current sections;
ACR 148
Page 3
Avoid unnecessary cross-references;
Neither expand nor contract the scope of existing
exemptions to the general rule that records are open to the
public pursuant to the current provisions of the Public
Records Act;
Use terms with common definitions;
Organize the existing provisions in such a way that
similar provisions are located in close proximity to one
another;
Eliminate duplicative provisions; and
Clearly express legislative intent without any change in
the substantive provisions.
1)Requires that before commencing work on any project within the
calendar of topics authorized or directed for study by the
Legislature, the CLRC shall submit a detailed description of
the scope of work to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the
Committees on Judiciary of the Senate and Assembly, and any
other policy committee that has jurisdiction over the subject
matter of the study, and if during the course of the project
there is a major change to the scope of work, submit a
description of the change.
2)Provides that CLRC staff is invited to appear and testify at
any committee hearing of a bill to implement a CLRC
recommendation, for the purpose of explaining the
recommendation and answering questions posed by the committee
members, provided that the staff do not advocate for the
passage or defeat of the legislation.
3)Requests further the CLRC to provide a copy of a
recommendation to each member of a policy committee that is
hearing a bill that would implement the recommendation.
ACR 148
Page 4
Background
The CLRC was created in 1953 and tasked with the responsibility
for a continuing substantive review of California statutory and
decisional law. The CLRC studies the law in order to discover
defects and make related recommendations to the Legislature for
needed reforms.
The CLRC's enabling statute recognizes two types of topics the
CLRC is authorized to study: (1) those that the CLRC identifies
for study and lists in the Calendar of Topics that it reports to
the Legislature; and (2) those that the Legislature assigns to
the CLRC directly, by statute or concurrent resolution. Once
the CLRC identifies a topic for study, it cannot begin to work
on the topic until the Legislature, by concurrent resolution,
authorizes the CLRC to conduct the study. Direct legislative
assignments have become much more common in recent years, and
many of the CLRC's recent studies were directly assigned by the
Legislature.
This resolution, sponsored by the CLRC, continues the
authorization of the CLRC's studies on whether specified laws
should be revised or enacted. This resolution also continues
the direction to the CLRC to provide a detailed description of
any new study to the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Assembly and
Senate Judiciary Committees and any legislative policy
committees that have jurisdiction over the subject matter of the
study, as well as continue to provide guidance relating to the
distribution of CLRC reports and the appearance of CLRC staff as
witnesses at committee hearings. This resolution also requests
the CLRC to examine the CPRA to determine whether it should be
amended in a non-substantive manner to reduce its length and
complexity, avoid unnecessary cross-references, and eliminate
duplicative provisions.
Comments
ACR 148
Page 5
The author writes:
Once the California Law Revision Commission identifies a topic
for study, it cannot begin to work on the topic until the
Legislature, by concurrent resolution, authorizes the CLRC to
conduct the study. Due to the multiple changes to the statute,
the California Public Record Act has become difficult for the
public to understand. ACR 148 will authorize the CLRC to
conduct the study on the California Public Records Act.
The CPRA, signed into law in 1968 as a general record keeping
law, allows the public to monitor government activity. Since
the enactment of the CPRA, it has been amended multiple times
to exempt certain records. Due to the multiple changes to the
statute, the CPRA has become difficult for the public to
understand.
Prior Legislation
SCR 54 (Padilla, Chapter 115, Statutes of 2013) authorized the
CLRC report on and prepare recommended legislation concerning
statutes governing access by state and local government agencies
to customer information from communications service providers.
AB 567 (Wagner, Chapter 15, Statutes of 2013) repealed the
requirement that the CLRC make the decennial recommendations,
and retained the CLRC's general authority to study, review, and
make recommendations regarding the enforcement of judgments law.
ACR 125 (Papan, Chapter 167, Statutes of 2002) authorized the
CLRC to study, report on, and prepare recommended legislation
concerning the issue of financial privacy to address protection
and control of a consumer's personal information and provide
both administrative and civil penalties.
ACR 148
Page 6
The following is a list of the prior annual authorizing
resolutions for the CLRC:
SCR 83 (Monning, Chapter 63, Statutes of 2014)
ACR 98 (Wagner, Resolution Chapter 108, Statutes of 2012)
ACR 49 (Evans, Resolution Chapter 98, Statutes of 2009)
ACR 35 (Evans, Resolution Chapter 100, Statutes of 2007)
SCR 15 (Morrow, Resolution Chapter 1, Statutes of 2006)
SCR 42 (Campbell, Resolution Chapter 122, Statutes of 2005)
SCR 4 (Morrow, Resolution Chapter 92, Statutes of 2003)
ACR 123 (Wayne, Resolution Chapter 166, Statutes of 2002)
SCR 13 (Morrow, Resolution Chapter 78, Statutes of 2001)
ACR 17 (Wayne, Resolution Chapter 81, Statutes of 1999)
SCR 65 (Kopp, Resolution Chapter 91, Statutes of 1998)
SCR 3 (Kopp, Resolution Chapter 102, Statutes of 1997)
SCR 43 (Kopp, Resolution Chapter 38, Statutes of 1996)
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/3/16)
California Law Revision Commission (source)
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/3/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/9/16
ACR 148
Page 7
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines, Eduardo Garcia
Prepared by: Margie Estrada / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
8/15/16 10:19:18
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