BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 884 (Gordon) - Legislature: legislative proceeding:
audiovisual recordings
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|Version: June 9, 2016 |Policy Vote: E. & C.A. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: Yes |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: June 13, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 884, an urgency measure, would (1) repeal the
prohibition against using Assembly-generated television signals
for political or commercial purposes, (2) require the
Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of all open and
public proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the
committees thereof, as specified, and (3) require those records
to be made available to the public, as specified.
Fiscal Impact: The Legislature would incur one-time General Fund
costs of up to $2 million to purchase audiovisual recording
equipment, and about $1 million in ongoing General Fund costs
related to personnel and storage of the audiovisual recordings.
Background: Current law prohibits a television signal generated
by the Assembly from being used for any political or commercial
purpose, including, but not limited to, any campaign for
elective public office or any campaign supporting or opposing a
ballot proposition submitted to the electors; violation results
in a misdemeanor. Additionally, current law requires the
Legislative Counsel, with the advice of the Assembly Committee
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on Rules and the Senate Committee on Rules, to make certain
information available to the public in electronic form,
including, among other things, the text of each bill introduced
in each current legislative session, including each amended,
enrolled, and chaptered form of each bill.
Proposed Law: This bill would, among other things, do all of the
following:
Repeal the prohibition against using Assembly-generated
television signals for political or commercial purposes and
instead authorize the televised or other audiovisual
recordings of the public proceedings of each house of the
Legislature and the committees thereof to be used by the
public without the imposition of any fee.
Require, commencing on January 1, 2018, the Legislature
to do the following with respect to its open and public
proceedings:
o Cause audiovisual recordings to be made of (1)
all floor sessions of each house of the Legislature,
(2) the committee proceedings thereof at which a vote
is taken or an action is recorded, and (3) committee
proceedings thereof held in the State Capitol Building
regardless of whether a vote is taken or an action is
recorded.
o Make reasonable efforts to cause audiovisual
recordings to be made of all committee proceedings
held outside of the State Capitol Building at which no
vote is taken and no action is recorded.
o Make reasonable efforts to broadcast to the
public, in real time, all proceedings of the
Legislature and the committees thereof that are held
in the State Capitol Building.
Require those recordings to be posted on the Internet by
the Legislative Counsel within one business day after the
proceeding being recorded has been recessed or adjourned
for the day.
Require recordings posted on the Internet to be
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retrievable in a perceivable format for public use for (1)
the duration of the biennial session in which the recording
is made, and (2) the two biennial sessions immediately
following.
Require the Legislative Counsel to preserve and secure
these recordings in an electronic form and store them in an
archive in a retrievable and perceivable format for not
less than 20 years. Archived recordings shall be
reasonably available for use by the public.
Recast current law provisions related to state copyright
and proprietary interests in information be made publicly
available in electronic form by the Legislative Counsel and
instead provide that the information made available to the
public, as specified, is within the public domain.
Provide that it is contingent upon voter approval of SCA
14 (Wolk) at the November 8, 2016, Statewide General
Election.
Related Legislation: SCA 14 (Wolk) would (1) prohibit the
Legislature from passing a bill unless it has been published on
the Internet in its final form for at least 72 hours, as
specified, and (2) require the Legislature to make available
audiovisual recordings of the open and public proceedings of
each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof, as
prescribed. SCA 14 will be also be heard in this Committee on
June 13, 2016.
Staff Comments: The Legislature's annual budget is subject to
caps and limitations specified in Article IV, Section 7.5, of
the California Constitution, as adopted by Proposition 140, an
initiative measure approved by the voters on November 6, 1990.
Any new operations, staffing, or equipment expenditures imposed
upon the Legislature are typically absorbed within these
existing budgetary limits. This bill, however, is contingent
upon voter approval of SCA 14, which explicitly excludes these
costs from the Legislature's annual budget, and instead requires
the Legislature to make sufficient funding available for these
purposes.
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