BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 169|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 169
Author: Maienschein (R), et al.
Amended: 6/18/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/30/15
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Local government: public records: Internet
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill establishes open format requirements for
posting a public record if a local agency, except a school
district, maintains an "open data" Internet Resource, including,
but not limited to, an Internet Web site, Internet Web page, or
Internet Web portal, and voluntarily posts the public record.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Declares, under the California Constitution, the people's
right to transparency in government. ("The people have the
right of access to information concerning the conduct of the
people's business, and therefore, the meetings of public
bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall
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be open to public scrutiny....")
2)Governs, under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), the
disclosure of information collected and maintained by public
agencies. Generally, all public records are accessible to the
public upon request, unless the record requested is exempt
from public disclosure. There are 30 general categories of
documents or information that are exempt from disclosure,
essentially due to the character of the information, and
unless it is shown that the public's interest in disclosure
outweighs the public's interest in non-disclosure of the
information, the exempt information may be withheld by the
public agency with custody of the information.
3)Provides that 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 specified. Any reasonably segregable portion of a record
shall be available for inspection by any person requesting the
record after deletion of the portions that are exempted by
law.
4)Requires a public agency to make non-exempt electronic public
records available in any electronic format in which it holds
the information or, if requested, in an electronic format used
by the agency to create copies for its own or other agency's
use.
5)Authorizes a public agency to charge to the requestor the
direct cost of producing the electronic public record.
6)Requires the requestor of the electronic public record to pay
the cost of producing a copy of the record, including the cost
to construct the record, and the cost of programming and
computer services necessary to produce a copy of the record if
the public agency produces the electronic record only at
regularly scheduled intervals or the request requires data
compilation, extraction, or programming to produce the
electronic record.
7)Provides that a public agency is not required to release an
electronic record in the electronic form in which it is held
by the agency if its release would jeopardize or compromise
the security or integrity of the original record or of any
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proprietary software in which it is maintained.
8)Defines "local agency" to include a county; city, whether
general law or chartered; city and county; school district;
municipal corporation; district; political subdivision; or any
board, commission or agency thereof; other local public
agency; or entities that are legislative bodies of a local
agency.
This bill:
1)Requires, if a local agency, except a school district,
maintains an Internet Resource, including, but not limited to,
an Internet Web site, Internet Web page, or Internet Web
portal, which the local agency describes or titles as "open
data," and the local agency voluntarily posts a public record
on that Internet Resource, the local agency to post the public
record in an open format that meets all of the following
requirements:
retrievable, downloadable, indexable, and electronically
searchable by commonly used Internet search applications;
platform independent and machine readable;
available to the public free of charge and without any
restriction that would impede the reuse or redistribution
of the public record; and
retains the data definitions and structure present when
the data was compiled, if applicable.
2)Makes various related legislative findings and declarations.
Background
The California Public Records Act (CPRA), enacted in 1968,
requires public disclosure of public agency documents. The CPRA
gives every person the right to inspect and obtain copies of all
state and local government documents not exempt from disclosure.
(Gov. Code Sec. 6253.) In recognition of the increased
reliance by public agencies on electronic documents, the
Legislature enacted AB 2799 (Shelley, Chapter 982, Statutes of
2000), which, among other things, required public agencies, upon
request, to disclose electronic records in an electronic format
in which the agency held information or in a format that had
been used by the agency to create copies for its own use or for
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other public agencies.
Since 2000, computer technology has advanced to provide open
format software whereby electronic documents created and
maintained by public agencies can be searched, indexed, and
redacted electronically. In 2009, in order to increase
government agency accountability, promote informed public
participation, and create economic opportunity through expanding
access to information online in open formats, the United States
Director of the Office of Management and Budget issued an Open
Government Directive to federal government agencies. (Peter R.
Orszag, Director, Executive Office of the President, Office of
Management and Budget, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive
Departments and Agencies, Open Government Directive, Dec. 8,
2009, p. 2.) This Directive provided guidelines to public
agencies responding to public requests under the Freedom of
Information Act and instructed federal government agencies to
"publish information online in an open format that can be
retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used
web search applications." (Id.)
In 2013, President Obama signed Executive Order No. 13642, which
established the Open Data Policy and required all newly
generated government data to be made available in open,
machine-readable formats in order to "promote continued job
growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be
gained from opening Government data to the public." (Exec.
Order No. 13642, 78 Fed.Reg. 28111 (May 9, 2013).)
This bill seeks to further the purpose of those orders by
requiring local agencies, other than school districts, to post
public records in an open format.
Comments
The author writes:
Key information maintained by local governments, from business
licenses to council agendas and budgets, are frequently kept in
file formats that make them difficult to find or analyze using
contemporary internet tools and other technology. The current
guidelines for posting these documents predate the Xerox machine
and thus are inadequate in the modern era.
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The concept of "Open Data" describes data that are freely
available, machine-readable, and formatted according to national
technical standards to facilitate visibility and re-use of
published data. This concept of open data allows access to
standardized data that can be easily retrieved, downloaded,
sorted, searched, analyzed, redistributed and re-used by
individuals, business, researchers, journalists, developers, and
government to process, trend, and innovate utilizing a single
data table or combinations of data tables.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 573 (Pan, 2015), among other things, creates the statewide
open data portal, as defined, to provide public access to data
sets from agencies within the state. The bill requires any data
published on the statewide open data portal or other open data
portal operated by an agency to comply with all state and
federal privacy laws and regulations, and make the statewide
open data portal available, at no cost, to local agencies
interested in using the statewide open data portal to publish
its own data. SB 573 is currently in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
SB 272 (Hertzberg, 2015) requires each local agency to create a
catalog of enterprise systems, as defined, post that catalog on
the local agency's Internet Web site, and make the catalog
publicly available upon request in the office of the clerk of
the agency's legislative body. SB 272 is currently in the
Assembly Local Government Committee.
AB 1215 (Ting, 2015), among other things, enacts the California
Open Data Act and requires state agencies to make public data,
as defined, available on an Internet Web portal and authorize a
local government to adopt that standard. AB 1215 requires each
state agency, on or before July 1, 2016, to submit a strategic
plan and a strategic enterprise application plan, as specified,
to the Chief Data Officer and to post the reports on the
Internet Web portal. AB 1215 also requires specified legal
policies for public data to be posted on the Internet Web
portal. AB 1215 is currently under submission in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
SB 1002 (Yee, 2012) would have enacted the California Open Data
Standard and required a state or local agency to make electronic
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data or an electronic document available to the public in an
open format, as defined. That provision was subsequently
removed to instead require the State Chief Information Officer
to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of providing
electronic records in an open format. SB 1002 was vetoed by
Governor Brown because he believed that another legislative
report on electronic public records was unnecessary.
AB 2799 (Shelley, Chapter 982, Statutes of 2000) - See
Background.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified7/13/15)
Associated Builders and Contractors of California
Building Owners and Managers Association of California
California Building Industry Association
California Business Properties Association
California Business Roundtable
California Forward Action Fund
California League of Food Processors
California Manufacturing & Technology Association
California Professional Firefighters
California Taxpayers Association
Commercial Real Estate Development Association, NAIOP of
California
Family Business Association
International Council of Shopping Centers
Los Angeles County Business Federation
National Federation of Independent Business
San Diego Regional Data Library
Sunlight Foundation
OPPOSITION: (Verified7/13/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/7/15
AB 169
Page 7
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Campos, Roger Hernández, Steinorth
Prepared by:Tara Welch / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
7/14/15 11:17:35
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