BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 884|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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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:
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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California Newspaper Publishers Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/15/16)
California Business Roundtable
Charles T. Munger, Jr and Former Senator Sam Blakeslee
(California Legislature Transparency Act Proponents)
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
National Federation of Independent Business
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
6/15/16 9:18:40
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AB 884
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