BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1585
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1585 (Accountability and Administrative Review Committee)
As Introduced July 9, 2009
2/3 vote. Urgency
BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS 10-0
APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Hayashi, Emmerson, |Ayes:|De Leon, Conway, Ammiano, |
| |Conway, Eng, Hernandez, | | |
| |Nava, Niello, | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| |John A. Perez, Ruskin, | |Davis, |
| |Smyth | |Fuentes, Hall, Harkey, |
| | | |Miller, |
| | | |Nielsen, John A. Perez, |
| | | |Skinner, |
| | | |Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson, |
| | | |Hill |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Revises the procedure for mandatory and voluntary
reporting requirements and deletes obsolete reports.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the Legislative Counsel Bureau (LC) to refer a
requester of an agency report to the California State Library
as the final repository of public information.
2)Requires bills introduced or amended in either house of the
Legislature requiring a state agency to submit a report on any
subject to either house of the Legislature or LC to include a
provision repealing or making inoperative the reporting
requirement no later than a date four years following the date
upon which bill is in enacted, commencing on and after January
1, 2010, as specified.
3)Requires LC, in drafting a bill for introduction or amendments
imposing a reporting requirement to include a provision that
repeals or makes obsolete the reporting requirement, four
years after the date on which the requirement becomes
operative, unless the person requesting the bill or amendment
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directs LC to do otherwise, as specified.
4)Requires LC to maintain and update an electronic list (list) of
all reports that state and local agencies are required to
prepare and file with the Governor or Legislature, as
specified, removing obsolete or duplicate reports from the
list, and as directed by this bill, or a subsequent statute
that further requires LC to remove reports included in the
list.
5)States that the requirement to delete a report pursuant to this
bill shall not prohibit LC from including the report on a
future publication of the list, if the report is required by
law to be listed.
6)Defines "obsolete report" to mean a report that has not been
completed and filed and for which the date that the report was
required to be completed and files was four or more years in
the past.
7)Requires LC to delete approximately 1,200 reports from the list.
8) Contains an urgency clause, allowing this bill to take
effect immediately upon enactment.
EXISTING LAW requires:
1)Or requests various state and local agencies to submit reports
on specified topics to the Legislature, the Governor, or both.
2)A report that is to be made to the Members of either house of
the Legislature to instead be submitted to LC, the Secretary
of the Senate, and Chief Clerk of the Assembly.
3)LC to prepare and publish a list of all the reports that state
and local agencies are required to submit, and upon request,
to provide aid and assistance to any Member of the Legislature
with respect to a bill, resolution, or measure, including
drafting a bill into its proper form.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
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Committee:
1)Minor, absorbable costs for the workload associated with LC
updating the current list and flagging future listings with a
four-year sunset date.
2)The majority of the reports listed in the bill are obsolete or
are not being produced by the departments, therefore any
savings associated with this legislation will likely be minor.
To the extent any of the reports on this listed are currently
being produced however, there could be minor General Fund or
special fund workload savings for the affected departments.
COMMENTS : This bill, authored by the Assembly Accountability
and Administrative Review Committee (Committee), revises the
method for receiving and cataloging mandated and voluntary
reports by LC and deletes more than 1,200 obsolete reporting
requirements from the list of reports maintained by LC. More
than 160 governmental entities, spanning from agencies,
commissions, and boards, are included in this bill. This bill
is a result of a hearing held by the Committee in February of
2009, examining reporting requirements of state agencies and
compliance in fulfilling those requirements.
A Web site is maintained by LC pursuant to the requirements of
Government Code Section 10242.5 which named LC as the repository
for all legislative reports. Government Code Section requires
state and local agencies to submit reports to LC, the Secretary
of the Senate, and the Chief Clerk of the Assembly. To fulfill
this requirement, agencies send hard copies or electronic copies
of reports to LC.
When a report is received by the LC, the title, date received
and an URL for the report (if provided by the agency) are
entered on the Agency Reports Web site. Hard copies of reports
are then sent to the Government Publications Section of the
State Library for cataloging and retention. Electronic copies
are sent via email to the Government Publications Section of the
State Library where they are printed, cataloged and retained.
Each report must include a one-page summary of its contents,
which LC is required to distribute to each member of the
appropriate house of the Legislature within two working days of
its receipt. Notice of receipt shall also be recorded in the
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journal of the appropriate house.
The Web site ( http://www.agencyreports.ca.gov/ ) contains a list
of all reports that state and local agencies are required or
requested by law to prepare and file with the Governor, the
Legislature, or both, in the future or within the preceding
year.
LC staff review chaptered bills, ballot propositions passed at
elections, and the Legislative Analyst's Supplemental Report of
the Budget to determine new report requirements and changes to
report requirements. The Web site is updated accordingly.
The Committee states, "Unfortunately, all this only works when a
report is completed if it is sent to Legislative Counsel. It
does not work when the report is given solely to the committee
or legislator that requested it although it is complete. The
public never sees the information unless it is provided to
Legislative Counsel which records it and forwards it to the
State Library.
"There is no way to know which reports were not completed due to
a moratorium, as there was no requirement for Legislative
Counsel to be advised. As a result, the records mean almost
nothing when the public goes to the web site to see what reports
are due and what reports are completed.
"At the time of our hearing, there were nearly 3,000 mandated
reports due according to the Legislative Counsel site. In our
review, we found reports had been completed and submitted in
accordance with the law yet Legislative Counsel had no record.
We found reports that were deferred during funding moratoriums
listed as due. We found duplicate listings for the same
reports. We found reports listed as due annually that have not
been done for years because the program is no longer in
existence or it is not funded, or the responsible department
knows it is no longer wanted but the requirement remains.
"The best example is a report required annually by the Secretary
of State to report to the Governor disclosing all expenditures
and activities. The last time the report was completed was in
1936 and it lists the number of reams of colored voting paper
purchased, and other elements no longer considered relevant.
There are reports still required relative to Y2K. There are
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reports still required relative to the 1979 Arab oil embargo."
Analysis Prepared by : Rebecca May / B. & P. / (916) 319-3301
FN: 0002561