In the fastest-moving period in the history of the planet, it is tepidly comforting to know that the most cynical politicians since earth was a boy can be vulnerable to public pressure.
• On Wednesday, despite extraordinary hiding efforts, it was reported that Gov. Brown and his Democrat allies – no fans of transparent government – last week furtively sneaked provisions into an unrelated bill that would have crippled the 45-year-old Public Records Act.
• On Thursday, his hearing drowned out by protests from journalists, gadflies and a Garden of Eden full of other activists, Assembly Speaker John Perez said, “Let’s take another look at those changes” Immediately and forcefully, Gov. Brown and Senate Majority Leader Darrell Steinberg – all three are hardline liberal Dems – convinced Mr. Perez he was on a fool’s errand, and Mr. Brown’s gutting plan held. He was set to sign the bill.
• Hours later, the volume and breadth of the cries tortured the normally tone-deaf governor so profoundly he was forced to humiliatingly retreat and surrender. This morning, the Public Records Act remains intact.
With Capital Letters
Hands on its broad hips, the usually correct Sacramento Bee harrumphed at 7:30 this morning:
“It took way too long and was messy and embarrassing, but Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders are on the right track in protecting and enhancing public access to government records.
“All of them support a constitutional amendment that would make clear that local governments have a financial obligation to comply with sunshine laws. And all are willing to change a trailer bill that could have made the state open records act optional for local agencies.
“As part of a larger feud over paying for state mandates, Brown and both houses of the Legislature were preparing to cut $20 million in funding for local governments to comply with state public records laws. Brown and others have argued, rightly, that local governments shouldn't need a handout from Sacramento to engage in a fundamental act of government transparency.
“Yet the governor's solution – allowing local governments to avoid complying with public records law – could have prompted some cities and counties to opt out. That's unacceptable, and in recent days, Californians have let Brown and legislative leaders know it.”
In Culver City – where City Manager John Nachbar said the Public Records Act never was in danger of being defanged from its viewpoint – this week’s silly squawking was like standing on the sidelines watching typically angry ex-spouses try to yank off each other’s wigs. Or undo their plastic surgeries.
[img]1305|right|Andy Weissman||no_popup[/img]“We were never going to modify the way in which we respond to public records requests,” City Councilman Andy Weissman, the immediate past mayor, told the newspaper this morning. “It is unfortunate that it has turned into another unfunded mandate from the state. Heretofore, cities were reimbursed by the state for the costs inhered in observing the Public Records Act.
“Now they are leaving the act the same, merely providing that the state is no longer obligated to pay for the costs of complying with it. That is unfortunate, in the overall that we have another unfunded mandate from the state.”
Specifically from the Culver City standpoint, and “this probably is not a big surprise,” Mr. Weissman said, “the requests we get for release of public records are few, and they come, I suspect, from the same half-dozen people.”
