BILL ANALYSIS
Bill No: AB
1585
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Roderick D. Wright, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
Staff Analysis
AB 1585 Author: Committee on Accountability and
Administrative Review
As Amended: January 6, 2010
Hearing Date: January 12, 2010
Consultant: Art Terzakis
SUBJECT
State Government: reporting requirements
DESCRIPTION
AB 1585 is an urgency measure that deletes hundreds of
obsolete reports, as specified, and revises the procedure
for mandatory reporting requirements by state agencies.
Specifically, this measure:
1. Provides that any bill 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, a committee or office of either house of the
Legislature, or Legislative Counsel must include a
provision repealing or making inoperative the reporting
requirement no later than a date 4 years following the
operative date of the bill or 4 years after the due date
of any report required every 4 or more years. [Reports
are due on different schedules (e.g., two, three, four or
even five and ten year cycles). This sunset requirement
is intended to ensure that a report due, for example,
every five years will not be repealed until four or more
years after the due date. Theoretically, this would
provide ample time to effect obtaining the information
via budget or legislative means.]
2. Also, requires Legislative Counsel, in drafting a bill
that imposes a reporting requirement to include a
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Review) continued Page 2
provision that repeals or makes obsolete the reporting
requirement, 4 years after the date on which the
requirement becomes operative, unless the person
requesting the bill or amendment directs Legislative
Counsel to do otherwise, as specified.
3. Modifies an existing provision of law that requires
Legislative Counsel to prepare and publish annually a
list of all reports that state and local agencies are
required or requested by law to prepare and file with the
Governor or the Legislature and instead requires
Legislative Counsel to annually prepare and maintain an
"electronic list" (list) of all such reports, including
updating the list by removing obsolete or duplicate
reports, as directed by this bill, or a subsequent
statute that further requires Legislative Counsel to
remove reports included in the list.
4. Provides that any report required or requested by law
to be submitted by a state or local agency to the Members
of either house of the Legislature must instead be
submitted as a printed copy to Legislative Counsel and to
both the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Clerk of
the Assembly as "electronic copies." Also, requires an
agency to provide a one-page electronic summary directly
to each member of the Legislature rather than a full copy
now that reports are available electronically.
5. Declares that the requirement to delete a report
pursuant to this bill shall not prohibit Legislative
Counsel 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 filed was four or
more years after the initial report is submitted.
7. Authorizes Legislative Counsel to direct public
inquiries for reports to the appropriate state agency or
to the California State Library as the final repository
of public information.
8. Contains a listing of existing reports, as specified,
identified as obsolete to be deleted by Legislative
Counsel.
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Review) continued Page 3
EXISTING LAW
Existing law requires or requests various state and local
agencies to submit reports on specified topics to the
Legislature, the Governor, or both.
Existing law requires a report that is to be made to the
Members of either house of the Legislature to
instead be submitted to the Legislative Counsel, the
Secretary of the Senate, and Chief Clerk of
the Assembly and a hard copy summary sent to each member of
the Legislature.
Each of these reports is required to include a summary of
its contents, which the Legislative Counsel is required to
provide to each Member of the appropriate house of the
Legislature.
Existing law also requires the Legislative Counsel 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.
BACKGROUND
Legislative Counsel Reporting Compliance Process:
Currently, a Web site is maintained by Legislative Counsel
pursuant to the requirements of Government Code Section
10242.5 which named Legislative Counsel as the repository
for all legislative reports. Existing law requires state
and local agencies to submit reports to Legislative
Counsel, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Chief Clerk
of the Assembly. To fulfill this requirement, agencies
send hard copies of reports to Legislative Counsel.
When a report is received by the Legislative Counsel, 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.
Each report must include a one-page summary of its
contents, which Legislative Counsel is required to be
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Review) continued Page 4
distributed to each member of the appropriate house of the
Legislature within two working days of its receipt. Notice
of receipt must also be recorded in the 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 in
preceding years by searching for completed reports by
agency or report name. Legislative Counsel staff reviews
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.
Purpose of bill: AB 1585, authored by the entire
membership of the Assembly Accountability and
Administrative Review Committee (Committee), would: (1)
delete nearly 1,500 obsolete reporting requirements from
the list of over 2,800 reports maintained by Legislative
Counsel; (2) revise the method for receiving and cataloging
mandated reports; and, (3) require any new report
requirement to include a sunset date, as specified. More
than 160 governmental entities, including 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.
At the time of the hearing, the Committee noted that there
were nearly 3,000 mandated reports due according to the
Legislative Counsel site. As a result of the Committee's
review, staff discovered that reports had been completed
and submitted in accordance with the law yet Legislative
Counsel had no record. The Committee also found reports
that were deferred during funding moratoriums listed as
due. Additionally, the Committee found duplicate listings
for the same reports. Furthermore, the Committee
encountered 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 so they are doing the reports.
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Review) continued Page 5
An example of an obsolete report is one required annually
by the Secretary of State to report to the Governor
disclosing all expenditures and activities from the
previous year. 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 also reports still required relative
to Y2K. There are reports still required relative to the
1976 spike in gas prices.
The Committee estimates a savings of $5 - 8 million that
can be redirected into the core mission of the affected
agencies.
PRIOR/RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1311 (Duvall), Chapter 284, Statutes of 2009. Repealed
and revised various reporting requirements for the
Department of General Services, State Architect, and Fair
Employment and Housing Commission.
SB 1443 (Oller) 2001-02 Session. Would have required state
or local agency reports or studies to be submitted
electronically to the Legislature or Legislative Counsel
and provided that no state or local agency would be
required to prepare and submit any written report to the
Legislature or the Governor until July 1, 2003. (Held in
Senate Committee on Governmental Organization)
SB 392 (Oller) of 2001-02 Session. Would have amended and
deleted several unnecessary and burdensome reporting
requirements that the Secretary of State and many other
agencies must make to the Governor and Legislature each
year. (Returned without signature because it would have
repealed the annual report to the Governor on the progress
of maintenance of State records.)
SB 1191 (Speier), Chapter 745, Statutes of 2001 . Deleted
approximately 400 provisions requiring state and local
agencies to prepare and submit reports deemed to be no
longer relevant or necessary.
AB 116 (Speier) Chapter 970, Statutes of 1996 . Continued
the suspended reporting requirements enacted by AB 2824
(Speier) of 1992.
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Review) continued Page 6
AB 2824 (Speier) Chapter 710, Statutes of 1992 . Suspended
reporting requirements for three years of some 1,200
reports.
SUPPORT: None on file.
OPPOSE: None on file.
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
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