TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: March 21, 1997
RE: Electronic Filing Bills to be heard April 2

The California State Legislature's bill introduction deadline has passed and a total of three bills have been introduced to enact some form of electronic filing of, and online access to political disclosure statements. To recap, those three bills are:

I have just learned that the Senate bills have been set to be heard by the Senate Elections Committee on Wednesday, April 2, 1997.

There is still a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations taking place over the two Senate bills. While both bills are similar, SB 49 is likely to be significantly amended prior to the April 2 hearing, to make the primary author of the bill Senator Betty Karnette (D - Long Beach) who is the new chair of the Senate Elections Committee. AB 49 is also likely to be amended to remove the full-scale mandatory electronic filing provisions and instead begin with a pilot project. After the pilot project, the system would be evaluated and new legislation would need to be introduced and enacted to implement a full-scale system. (These amendments are still tentative and being negotiated.) SB 7, on the other hand, contains a pilot project as well as plans for full-scale implementation of a mandatory electronic filing system.

So, the debate at the April 2 committee hearing is likely to be about whether to start with just a pilot project or to go with a pilot and full-scale project at the same time. I spoke to the staff at the Senate Elections Committee, and they are looking forward to receiving public input on this issue. The hearing is open to the public and will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the California State Capitol (I will post the room number when we get closer to the date).

If you would like to attend the hearing and testify before the committee, it's a good idea to contact the committee ahead of time and let them know you plan to testify so they can schedule the hearing accordingly. To notify the committee of your intent to testify, contact Fran Tibon at the Senate Elections Committee at 916-445-2601.

The Senate Elections Committee will be preparing analyses of both bills prior to the hearing but unfortunately those analyses aren't typically available online until the day of or after the hearing. You can obtain the analyses prior to the hearing by contacting the Senate Elections Committee and they will be happy to fax it to you.

For those of you - whether individuals or organizations - who are planning to take positions on electronic filing legislation, now is the time to do so. Since all the bills are subject to change prior to the hearing, I suggest that in your position letters you stick to the broad issue of electronic filing and Internet access to disclosure records, and simply identify all three bills by author and number in your letters. As the process moves forward, these three bills are sure to become better distinguished from one another, but at this point it is very fluid and what's really key is that the members of the Legislature are aware that electronic filing is an important issue that has wide public interest.

Position letters should be addressed to:

Senator Betty Karnette, Chairwoman
Senate Elections Committee
State Capitol, Room 5046
Sacramento, CA 95814

You can send your letters via US mail, or fax them to the committee (unfortunately I don't have the committee's fax number but you can call them to get it).

The other four members of the Senate Elections Committee include:

Richard Polanco (D - Los Angeles)
Herschel Rosenthal (D - San Fernando Valley)
Bill Craven (R - Oceanside)
John Lewis (R - Orange)

Senators Rosenthal, Lewis and Karnette are new members to the committee, replacing Senators Henry Mello, Dan Boatwright and Bob Beverly, who were all term-limited out of the Legislature. Mello and Boatwright were both very critical of last year's electronic filing legislation, and we will find out on April 2 how the new members feel toward this issue.

If you live in any of the five committee members' districts, then your input on this issue will carry extra weight because lawmakers typically favor input from their constituents. (To find out which senate district you live in, go to the "who's my senator" feature on the State Senate's web site at www.sen.ca.gov).

While the committee will accept position letters any time prior to the April 2 hearing, you should get your letters in no later than Wednesday, March 26 to guarantee that your position is included in the committee's analysis.

As for the third electronic filing bill, AB 63/Cunneen, it has not yet been set for hearing by the Assembly Elections Committee. I will post another update on all the legislation as we near the April 2nd hearing date.

If you would like some history on last year's legislation, visit the California Voter Foundation's Digital Sunlight Web site at http://www.calvoter.org - there you will find lots of resources, including all my legislative updates from last year and lots of news stories.

Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
916/325-2120

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