BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1017
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB
1017 (Hill)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 21-8
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Utilities |9-5 |Gatto, Burke, Eggman, |Patterson, Chávez, |
| | | |Dahle, Hadley, |
| | | |Obernolte |
| | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, Ting, | |
| | |Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |12-5 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Gallagher, |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, |Jones, Obernolte, |
| | |Calderon, Eggman, |Wagner |
| | |Holden, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, Wood, | |
| | |Chu | |
SB 1017
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| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Modifies statutes that limit public access to utility
supplied documents at the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC). Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the CPUC to develop rules consistent with the
California Public Records Act (PRA) for the expeditious
disclosure, of information related to all of the following:
a) Public health and safety emergencies;
b) Public, employee, and contractor safety; and
c) Environmental degradation caused by loss of operational
control by a public utility.
2)Exempts specified personal employee information and
information for which the public interest would best be served
by nondisclosure from the CPUC rule requirement.
3)Specifies that documents prohibited from public release by
state or federal law may not be released by the CPUC.
4)Modifies the conditions under which a present or former
officer or employee is guilty of a misdemeanor for providing
prohibited documents to the public for specified purposes and
clarifies misdemeanor provisions applicable to officers and
employees of the CPUC for knowingly and willfully disclosing
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confidential information.
5)Specifies it is not a crime to release prohibited documents to
the Bureau of State Audits or to another state agency under a
confidentiality agreement.
6)Establishes a process for notifying a provider of confidential
information that a request has been made for that information
and provides an opportunity to that provider to comment prior
to the information being made public.
7)Specifies an action arising from the PRA may be brought before
the Superior Court instead of the Supreme Court.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, additional costs are absorbable.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose: According to the author, an antiquated law put in
place before the PRA makes it very difficult for the public to
get public records from the CPUC. The author notes existing
law requires the full CPUC to vote to release documents that
have been designated by a utility as confidential. According
to the author, while there is no penalty for a utility to
designate clearly public information as confidential, CPUC
staff is subject to a misdemeanor for release of this
information regardless of whether the utility's claim of
confidentiality has any validity. This bill requires the CPUC
to establish public records policies consistent with the PRA.
2)Background: The California Constitution and the PRA require
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that most government records be available to the public and,
as such, allow agencies, including the CPUC, wide latitude to
establish policies for public access to their records.
However, unique among other agencies, the CPUC is also
governed by statute which states that no information furnished
to the CPUC by a public utility except those matters
specifically required to be open to public inspection by this
part, shall be open to public inspection or made public except
on order of the CPUC, or by the CPUC or a Commissioner in the
course of a hearing or proceeding. Any present or former
officer or employee of the CPUC who divulges any such
information is guilty of a misdemeanor.
As a result, the CPUC rules provide that regulated entities
can stamp their documents and information as confidential and
place the burden on the CPUC to determine whether the claims
of confidentiality are justified.
According to the CPUC, utilities have claimed confidentiality
on records including information filed publicly with other
agencies, a customer service manual that is distributed to
customers, newspaper advertisements, and hearing exhibits that
are contained in public testimony.
3)Due Process: Concerns have been raised about due process, in
the event of a disagreement between a provider of confidential
information and whether this information should or should not
be held confidential. In the event of a request for release
of confidential information this bill specifies the provider
of the confidential information has the ability to comment on
the release of such information prior to its release.
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Analysis Prepared by:
Sue Kateley / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083 FN:
0004720