Governor Vetoes Bill to Shed More Light on State Contract Lobbying

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday vetoed a bill to require disclosure of lobbying around state government contracts. The bill, from Palo Alto Assemblyman Rich Gordon, would have required lobbyists communicating with officials on a contract worth more than $250,000 to register and report their activity.

The bill sought to put lobbying on procurements (on which the state spent $12 billion in 2014) on the same regulatory level as traditional legislative lobbying.

“Given that the laws regulating state procurement are voluminous and already contain ample opportunity for public scrutiny, I don’t believe this bill is necessary,” wrote the governor in his veto message.

The bill passed the Senate in March on a 38-1 vote, and the Assembly voted 69-0 earlier this month to send the bill to the governor.

The Fair Political Practices Commission would have been tasked with overseeing the registration of procurement lobbyists. A Senate analysis found that the bill could cost the FPPC hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Commission chair Jodi Remke, a Brown appointee, had expressed skepticism that the bill would be able to provide information on what led to the awarding of a contract without requiring the reporting of each “contact” between lobbyists and government officials.

“Our bipartisan Commission voted to oppose AB1200 because we felt the bill would unnecessarily complicate existing lobbying rules without any increase in meaningful disclosure for the public,” Remke said in a statement. “I am pleased the Governor saw the problems with the bill and vetoed it.”

Gordon called that opposition “curious.”

“The bill simply asks [the FPPC] to register lobbyists, which is what they currently do,” he said.

Gordon added that he hopes the ideas in the bill can move forward in the future, whether through new legislation or internal changes.

"Part of the governor’s role, I suppose, requires him to defend administrative activities and his administrative units,” he said. “The strong bipartisan support showed that the Legislature believes this is something the administrative branch should take on.”

Despite the failure of AB1200, many local governments in California have already moved ahead with similar requirements for the disclosure of procurement lobbying. Counties such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and Santa Clara require the registration of lobbyists pushing for county contracts.