Calif. Lawmaker Releases Meeting Calendar

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A California lawmaker who is at odds with the Assembly's Democratic leadership has released his daily calendar for the first six months of 2011 to The Associated Press, breaking with the Legislature's policy of forbidding members from publicly releasing that information.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada-Flintridge, said there are no secrets in his schedule and therefore no reason why he should not release it. Portantino is in a feud with Assembly Speaker John Perez, a fellow Democrat. Portantino said the speaker slashed his office budget earlier this year because he refused to vote for the state budget.

"These are the schedules of public figures, and I think that's the point here," Portantino said Thursday. "We're not talking about private information. We're talking about a public calendar of a public official."

To prove his claim that his budget was cut as retribution for his vote, Portantino has sought the release of all Assembly members' current office budgets and any correspondence about them. His request was largely denied last week by the Assembly Rules Committee, which released some details about lawmakers' expenditures for last year but did not offer a complete account.

The legislative committees that oversee the offices of California's 120 state senators and Assembly members have refused several formal requests to release lawmakers' daily calendars, citing security and privacy reasons. The Legislature has exempted itself from the public records law that governs most state and local bodies in California and instead is covered by the Legislative Open Records Act, which lawmakers have used to give themselves greater leeway to decide what information to keep private.

The Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News and the First Amendment Coalition have sought lawmakers' daily schedules as a way to determine how California lawmakers spend their time when they are not sitting on committees or on the floor of Legislature and to examine how much time they spend with lobbyists or special interests.

Portantino said lawmakers have been forbidden by leadership from releasing their calendars, but he did not realize until his feud with Perez how many documents were being kept from the public.

"Now that I realize the depth of the secrecy that the leadership has been defending, the importance of transparency has taken on greater meaning," he said.

Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly Rules committee, said that while the committee would not release members' calendars, individual members are free to do so.

He said the rules committee advises members not to release their calendars "because we believe there are security concerns involved, according to our sergeants. ... But if he chooses to do so, that's certainly his prerogative."

The AP and other news organizations have repeatedly asked every California state lawmaker for their calendars. Those requests have immediately been turned over to the rules committees in each house, which routinely rejects them.

In the state Senate, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, earlier this year wrote to Secretary of the Senate Gregory Schmidt seeking permission to release his calendars. The request was denied, as was a previous request by Yee in early 2010.

Perez spokeswoman Robin Swanson did not immediately return telephone messages Thursday.

The Mercury News and AP have reported that the mayors and other top elected officials in California's largest cities, as well as top federal government officials, routinely release their calendars, as do lawmakers in many other states with full-time legislatures.

Gov. Jerry Brown and the rest of California's constitutional officers, including the attorney general, lieutenant governor and secretary of state, also have released their calendars to the AP.

The First Amendment Coalition, a San Rafael-based nonprofit that advocates for free speech and greater government transparency, is considering legal action over the Legislature's refusal to release lawmakers' calendars. Its executive director, Peter Scheer, said the claim by the Assembly and Senate rules committees that they control all lawmakers' documents is absurd.

"It completely ignores the freedom of speech rights of the legislators and the legislators' First Amendment rights and obligations to their own voters and their own constituents," Scheer said. "By giving calendars to the press, Portantino puts a major crack in the wall of secrecy that the rules committees have erected, and I would hope that it becomes a bigger crack as other legislators also do what they think is right."

Scheer said the coalition will decide soon whether to file a lawsuit.

Portantino's calendars show a busy schedule of policy meetings, luncheons with attorneys and meet-and-greet events. They reveal that the former higher education committee member meets regularly with lobbyists and officials from schools and higher education groups, including several meetings this spring with officials from the state's two largest teachers unions.

Some of the scheduled meetings with Portantino list only first names, while others are listed as `FYI,' indicating he may not be expected to attend. It is not clear which of the meetings he attended. Some of the meeting locations in areas throughout California conflict with times when Portantino was in Sacramento.

Personal reminders are sprinkled throughout, such as updates about his daughter's school schedule, a reminder to help his wife set up a tent and notes about other lawmakers' birthdays -- both Democrats and Republicans.

Portantino's calendars also show a Feb. 1 meeting with Perez, a Feb. 10 meeting with Nancy McFadden, one of Gov. Jerry Brown's top deputies, a meeting with Attorney General Kamala Harris on March 29 and meetings with school district board members and national health advocacy groups.

On June 9, he is listed as having lunch with California Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a fellow Democrat.

On June 15, meetings are listed with lobbyists from BMW and the Automobile Club of Southern California over SB750, a bill by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Baldwin Park, that would end automakers' exemption from having to provide electronic key code information to locksmiths so vehicle owners could more easily obtain replacement keys.

Hernandez canceled the first scheduled hearing on the bill five days later, the same day Portantino had more meetings scheduled with auto industry lobbyists who opposed it.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)