Alarm Is Sounded Over Disastrous Assembly Bill 1821 — Bad for Transparency, Accountability and Democracy

From First Amendment Coalition

We’re writing to sound alarms about California Assembly Bill 1821, which would have disastrous effects on transparency, accountability, and our democracy. Well, it’s crunchtime.

The bill, which was amended at the proverbial 11th hour in a transformation that a local watchdog group called “a virtual horror show of governmental non-transparency,” is set for a crucial committee hearing June 30. We need your help to stop it.

If passed, the bill would fundamentally alter the California Public Records Act, a vital sunshine law that ensures the people’s business be done in public view, making state and local governments less transparent and less responsive to the people they serve. Specifically, it would:

• Allow government agencies to charge hefty fees for public records
• Give local governments the authority to deem requests “not properly requested” and therefore invalid
• Allow local governments even more time to delay their responses
• Empower government agencies to sue members of the public if they feel a request was made with “malicious intent,” which seems left to the interpretation of whoever is holding the public records someone is asking to see

The bill is bad policy that’s the product of bad process. As Oaklandside’s reporting underscores, the bill was dramatically amended after members of the Assembly voted for it. And while the bill’s author referred to the amendments as “minor tweaks,” we agree with the San Jose Mercury News’ opinion editor’s assessment that they more closely resemble the Trump administration’s attacks on transparency.

The Orange County Register deemed it an “assault on access to public records,” calling on Sen. Tom Umberg, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hear the bill next week, to “send AB 1821 to the bottom of the sea.”

We agree for all the reasons we offered in a recent interview with KQED, which is why we’ve been working around the clock with a diverse group of organizations from the ACLU to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to raise awareness of and oppose this bill that would weaken our fragile democracy.

And now, as the fateful hearing draws near, we are asking for your help. Umberg and his fellow members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have the power to stop this bill in its tracks.

Please call them and urge them to do so and help protect the transparency our democracy depends on.