GRAY VETOES CALIFORNIA OPEN-RECORDS BILL

By: Joel Davis Democratic Governor Is Tough On Crime (and Newspapers)





SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed for a
second time legislation that would have allowed Californians to ask the
state attorney general to review public agencies' denials of requests
for public records.



Sponsored by state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), the measure sailed
through the state Legislature, but Davis - who also recently
vetoed a bill giving the media greater access to California prisoners
- wouldn't sign it. "The bill sets up a bureaucratic reporting
mechanism, involving the preparation, posting, and mailing of [attorney
general] opinions on the merits of a state agency's decision to
withhold requested information," Davis said in a statement. "The costs
to comply with this bill ... would likely be significant. Therefore, I
am vetoing this bill."



The veto comes as a great disappointment to open-government advocates
in California. "The bill had the potential to radically reduce or even
eliminate the need for costly litigation of public-records disputes,
which costs government a lot more than creating this new function in
the AG's office would have," said Thomas Newton, general counsel for
the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA), which backed
the bill.



Davis is a moderate Democrat who is tough on crime - and the
newspaper industry. In addition to vetoing the prison-access and
public-records bills, he is considered a tough sell on CNPA's attempt
to overturn California's sales tax on daily papers.



"Governor Davis is completely out of touch with common citizens'
experiences in trying to get information from government [that] it
would rather not provide - or he simply doesn't care," said Terry
Francke of the California First Amendment Coalition. "Whichever is the
case, this [latest] veto confirms that he will not allow Attorney
General Bill Lockyer to offer the help that Lockyer is willing to
provide."







Related story:



CALIFORNIA BILL FOR PRISON ACCESS VETOED (10/09/00)







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.