Section 9901 Of Article 1. General From California Government Code >> Division 2. >> Title 2. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 8. >> Article 1.
9901
. Findings and declaration.
The people find and declare:
(a) All citizens of the State are entitled to full and effective
representation by their elected representatives.
(b) In recent years spending for the support of the Legislature
has increased at a rate greatly exceeding the growth in spending for
most other state functions, severely damaging the image and
credibility of the Legislature with the people of California.
(c) In the absence of reasonable oversight and constraints,
powerful individual lawmakers exercise virtually exclusive control
over legislative spending, depriving the people of California and
other lawmakers of an effective means of discovering how these monies
are being spent or of judging the propriety of those expenditures.
(d) The distribution of funding, staff, and informational
resources in the Legislature according to predominantly partisan
criteria has greatly hindered the ability of minority party
representatives to provide effective legislative representation.
(e) The concentration of power in the office of Speaker of the
Assembly and, to a lesser extent, in the office of President pro
Tempore of the Senate, has created a system of patronage and
punishment through which a single legislator, accountable only to the
people of a single legislative district, is able to wield greatly
disproportionate influence over the laws of California.
(f) The growth in abusive voting practices in the Legislature and
its committees has worked to deprive the people of their right to
monitor the performance of their legislative representatives and
respond accordingly.
(g) The Legislature's refusal to adhere to statutory and
traditional notice and publication requirements for committee
hearings and reports of conference committees has deprived the public
of its right to make effective input into the legislative process.