SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 914 (Leno) would prohibit the search of information contained in a portable electronic device, as defined, by a law enforcement officer incident to a lawful custodial arrest except pursuant to a warrant issued by a duly authorized magistrate using established procedures. POSITION: Support STATUS: Vetoed
SB 563
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 563 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) would permit meetings of the board of directors of a common interest development association (gated community, condo, etc.) to be conducted by teleconference, as specified. The bill would require that the notice of a teleconference meeting identify at least one physical location so that members of the association may attend and would require that at least one member of the board of directors be present there. The bill would prohibit the board of directors from taking action on any item of business outside of a meeting, and would prohibit the board from conducting a meeting via a series of electronic transmissions, such as electronic mail, except to conduct an emergency meeting, as specified. POSITION: Support STATUS: Signed into law.
SB 252
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 252 (Vargas) would require a state agency that enters into a privatization contract to report to the Secretary of State regarding those contracts, and would require the Secretary of State to compile, publish, and make the reports available for public inspection. The bill would also provide that a subcontract executed under a privatization contract is a public record, and would require the contractor to submit these subcontracts to the contracting agency, which would in turn be required to make the records available to the public pursuant to the California Public Records Act. State agencies would also be required to prepare, as part of their budget requests, a document that contains specified information relating to their use of private contractors. POSITION: Support STATUS: Failed passage in Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Protection Committee; reconsideration granted.
SB 118
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 118 (Yee) would authorize a public agency, notwithstanding any other law, to enter into an energy service contract and any necessarily related facility ground lease only if its contracting process is in accordance with competitive bidding requirements and procedures for public contracts, as specified. POSITION: Support STATUS: Amended to other subject matter after opposition from school lobbyists and more than 35 energy and other companies.
AB 503
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: AB 503 (Block) would authorize county elections officials, after tallying all eligible votes but before completion of the official canvass and the issuance of the certified statement of the results, and upon the request of a qualified write-in candidate for an examination of undervotes that is received within 5 days of completion of the semi-official canvass, to hand tally the remaining undervotes if specified conditions are applicable. If an elections official conducts a hand tally pursuant to this authority, the bill would require the elections official to include the results in the official canvass of the election. POSITION: Support STATUS: Signed into law.
AB 172
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: AB 172 (Eng) would require the California Technology Agency to create and maintain a Reporting Transparency in Government Internet Web site, comparable to the one created by Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive order and discontinued by Governor Brown’s executive order. It would require, with some exemptions, state agencies to post specified audits to that Internet Web site for a period of 3 years, and would require the Department of General Services, the California Technology Agency, and other state agencies to post specified summary data regarding contracts awarded by the state to that Internet Web site, for the length of the contract. POSITION: Support STATUS: Vetoed
SB 602
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 602 (Yee) would enact the Reader Privacy Act, which would, among other things, prohibit a commercial provider of a book service, as defined, from disclosing, or being compelled to disclose, any personal information relating to a user of the book service, subject to certain exceptions. The bill would require a provider to disclose personal information of a user only if a court order has been issued, as specified, and certain other conditions have been satisfied. POSITION: Support STATUS: SIgned into law.
SB 263
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 263 (Pavley) would make a report relating to a well constructed, altered, abandoned, or destroyed on or after January 1, 2012, available to the public. The bill, commencing July 1, 2013, would also make available to the public reports relating to a well constructed, altered, abandoned, or destroyed before January 1, 2012, unless the department receives notification by the well owner that the well owner desires to keep the report confidential. POSITION: Support STATUS: Vetoed for access restrictions CalAware noted in its support letter.
SB 8
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: SB 8 (Yee) would subject foundations and other auxiliary organizations on campuses of community colleges, the California State University and the University of California to information disclosure statutes similar to the California Public Records Act, with anonymity for donors and volunteers who get no significant quid pro quo for their donations or services. POSITION: Support STATUS: Signed into law as the Richard McKee Transparency Act of 2011.
AB 322
SESSION: 2011 INFORMATION: AB 322 (Portantino) would require, among other things, local law enforcement agencies responsible for taking or collecting rape kit evidence to annually report to the Department of Justice statistical information, subject to inspection under the California Public Records Act, pertaining to the testing and submission for DNA analysis of rape kits. POSITION: Support STATUS: Bill stripped of this provision in Senate Appropriations.