BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 884| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 884 Author: Gordon (D), et al. Amended: 6/9/16 in Senate Vote: 27 - Urgency SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 4-1, 6/8/16 AYES: Allen, Hancock, Hertzberg, Liu NOES: Anderson SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 4-2, 6/13/16 AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire NOES: Bates, Nielsen NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 50-26, 5/26/15 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Legislature: legislative proceeding: audiovisual recordings SOURCE: Author DIGEST: This bill repeals the prohibition against using Assembly-generated television signals for political or commercial purposes and requires the Legislature to cause audiovisual recordings to be made of all open and public proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the standing committees thereof. ANALYSIS: AB 884 Page 2 Existing law: 1)Prohibits, pursuant to statute, 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. A person or organization who violates this prohibition is guilty of a misdemeanor. 2)Requires the Legislative Counsel, with the advice of the Assembly Committee 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. This bill: 1)Repeals the prohibition against using Assembly-generated television signals for political or commercial purposes and instead authorizes 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. 2)Requires, commencing on January 1, 2018, the Legislature to do the following with respect to its open and public proceedings: a) Cause audiovisual recordings to be made of (i) all floor sessions of each house of the Legislature, (ii) the committee proceedings thereof at which a vote is taken or an action is recorded, and (iii) committee proceedings thereof held in the State Capitol Building regardless of whether a vote is taken or an action is recorded. AB 884 Page 3 b) 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. c) 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. 3)Requires 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. 4)Requires recordings posted on the Internet to be retrievable in a perceivable format for public use for the duration of the biennial session in which the recording is made, and the two biennial sessions immediately following. 5)Requires 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. 6)Recasts current 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. 7)Contains an urgency clause but provides that it is contingent upon voter approval of SCA 14 (Wolk) at the November 8, 2016, Statewide General Election. Background AB 884 Page 4 The Munger/Blakeslee Initiative. This measure, along with SCA 14 (Wolk), are similar in intent to an initiative measure that is currently pending signature verification, the proponents for which are Charles T. Munger, Jr. and former State Senator Sam Blakeslee. The official title and summary of the measure is as follows: Legislature. Legislation and Proceedings. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Prohibits Legislature from passing any bill unless it has been in print and published on the Internet for at least 72 hours before the vote, except in cases of public emergency. Requires the Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of all its proceedings, except closed session proceedings, and post them on the Internet. Authorizes any person to record legislative proceedings by audio or video means, except closed session proceedings. Allows recordings of legislative proceedings to be used for any legitimate purpose, without payment of any fee to the State. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Increased costs to state government of potentially $1 million to $2 million initially and about $1 million annually for making additional legislative proceedings available in audiovisual form on the Internet. The following is the Fiscal Impact Estimate Report for the initiative measure as prepared by the Legislative Analyst's Office: Background Legislative Rules. The State Legislature has two houses: the State Assembly and the State Senate. The California Constitution governs the various ways in which the Legislature can pass bills. It does not include a requirement on the amount of time a bill needs to be AB 884 Page 5 available on the Internet before a vote by either house. Public Proceedings. The Constitution requires the proceedings of each house to be open and public, with some exceptions. These public proceedings include floor sessions and committee hearings, some of which occur outside of the State Capitol. Both the Senate and Assembly make audio or audiovisual recordings of most, but not all, of these proceedings available to the public online. The legislative branch spends around $1 million annually on these activities. Current law prohibits Assembly recordings from being used for political and commercial purposes. Legislature's Budget. Proposition 140 (1990) established a cap on annual spending by the Legislature. The cap is adjusted each year for changes in per capita personal income and population. Proposal The measure makes three changes to Legislative rules and responsibilities. First, the measure requires the Legislature to ensure audiovisual recordings of all public proceedings are publicly accessible on the Internet within 24 hours and archived for at least 20 years thereafter. Second, the measure prohibits the Legislature from voting on a bill until it has been published online in its final form for at least 72 hours. This prohibition includes exceptions for emergencies, such as natural disasters. Third, the measure allows the recordings of public proceedings to be used for any legitimate purpose. Fiscal Effects The measure's primary fiscal impact relates to the requirement that the Legislature provide audiovisual AB 884 Page 6 recordings of all proceedings. The amount of added costs would depend on how the Legislature implemented the measure. The state, however, could face: (1) one-time costs of $1 million to $2 million to purchase cameras and other equipment and (2) ongoing costs of about $1 million annually for additional staff and storage for an archive of the recordings. The Legislature's costs of complying with the measure would come out of their annual spending allocation. Summary of Fiscal Effects. The measure would have the following fiscal effect: Increased costs to state government of potentially $1 million to $2 million initially and about $1 million annually for making additional legislative proceedings available in audiovisual form on the Internet. Option for initiative withdrawal. Per SB 1253 (Steinberg, Chapter 697, Statutes of 2014), proponents of a statewide initiative or referendum measure are now permitted to withdraw the measure after filing the petitions with elections officials at any time before the measure qualifies for the ballot (131 days prior to the election at which the measure will appear). The purpose of this option is to provide a mechanism for a proponent to remove a ballot initiative in the event the proponent comes to some form of negotiated resolution, such as an alternative passed by the Legislature. Comments 1)According to the author, AB 884 provides necessary statutory changes to implement provisions of SCA 14, which establishes constitutional requirements for audiovisual recording of legislative proceedings. SCA 14, if passed by the Legislature and approved by the voters, would require the Legislature to AB 884 Page 7 cause audiovisual recording of the open and public proceedings of each house and their standing committees. AB 884 establishes how the Legislature would arrange for audiovisual recording and disclosure of the Legislature's activities. SCA 14 recognizes that although the California Constitution currently provides that the proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees thereof shall be open and public, few citizens have the ability to attend legislative proceedings in person, and many legislative proceedings go completely unobserved. It enshrines in the Constitution the requirement that the Legislature cause that audiovisual recordings of open and public proceedings of the Legislature are made and available to the public. Related Legislation SCA 14 (Wolk, 2016), among other things, requires the Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of the proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the standing committees thereof, if those proceedings are required to be open and public. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, 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. SUPPORT: (Verified 6/13/16) AB 884 Page 8 California Newspaper Publishers Association OPPOSITION: (Verified6/13/16) California Business Roundtable Charles T. Munger, Jr and Former Senator Sam Blakeslee (California Legislature Transparency Act Proponents) Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 50-26, 5/26/15 AYES: Alejo, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Lopez, Low, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams, Wood, Atkins NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Grove, Hadley, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Maienschein, Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Chávez, Harper, Mathis Prepared by:Darren Chesin / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106 6/14/16 16:52:08 **** END ****