Section 9080 Of Article 3.5. Legislative Open Records Act From California Government Code >> Division 2. >> Title 2. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 1.5. >> Article 3.5.
9080
. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that legislative
records relating to bills, resolutions, or proposed constitutional
amendments before the Legislature provide evidence of legislative
intent that may be important in the subsequent interpretation of laws
enacted in the Legislature. The Rules Committee of each house of the
Legislature and the Joint Rules Committee shall inform each
committee of the Senate and Assembly, and each joint committee of the
Legislature, of their responsibility to preserve legislative records
and make them available to the public.
(b) Each committee of the Senate or Assembly, and each joint
committee of the Legislature, having custody of legislative records
relating to a bill, resolution, or proposed constitutional amendment
assigned to that committee, shall maintain the legislative records
described in subdivision (d) in an official committee file. The
committee shall preserve those records in its custody, or, in the
alternative, may arrange with the State Archives to lodge some or all
of the records there under the condition that the records be
preserved.
(c) "Committee" for purposes of this section includes any entity
of the Senate or Assembly responsible for preparing analyses of
bills, resolutions, or proposed constitutional amendments that are to
be put to a vote by a quorum of the members of the Senate or
Assembly.
(d) "Legislative records," for purposes of this section, means
records contained in an official committee file, including, but not
limited to, all of the following:
(1) Committee staff analyses.
(2) Written testimony.
(3) Background material submitted to the committee.
(4) Press releases.
(5) Written commentary submitted to the committee on a bill,
resolution, or proposed constitutional amendment. For purposes of
this paragraph, "written commentary" does not include the following:
(A) Material not utilized by the staff of a fiscal committee in
the preparation of any analysis for the members of that committee.
(B) Communications determined by the committee or its staff to be
confidential.
(6) Versions of bills, resolutions, or proposed constitutional
amendments assigned to the committee.
(7) Relevant interim hearing materials, studies, case materials,
and articles.
(e) Legislative records contained in an official committee file
shall be open to inspection and copying by the public, pursuant to
Sections 9073 and 9074. Each committee of the Senate or Assembly, and
each joint committee of the Legislature, shall adopt and implement
written procedures consistent with Sections 9073 and 9074 for the
public's access to official committee files maintained in the
committee's office. The procedures shall provide for the time, place,
and other conditions under which committee files may be inspected
and copied. Each committee shall make copies of its written
procedures available to the public.
(f) The Rules Committee of each house of the Legislature or,
alternatively, the Joint Rules Committee shall provide for the
storage of any official committee file that is not maintained in the
office of the committee that created the file or lodged with the
State Archives. The Rules Committees of each house of the Legislature
or the Joint Rules Committee, as the case may be, shall adopt and
implement written procedures consistent with Section 9073 for the
public's access to official committee files so stored in its custody.
The procedures shall provide for the time, place, and other
conditions under which committee files may be inspected and copied,
and the committee shall make copies of its written procedures
available to the public.
(g) Nothing in this section requires making any legislative record
available for inspection that relates to any unchaptered bill,
resolution, or proposed constitutional amendment introduced in the
current legislative session, except in accordance with the
requirements and limitations specified in Sections 9073, 9074, and
9075.