Project leaders overseeing the construction of an expensive new office building for California lawmakers and the governor have been repeatedly violating the state’s open records laws and continue to withhold key cost information. The new office building is expected to cost almost as much as an NFL stadium and will end up being more expensive than the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. At last check, the Capitol Annex project was expected to cost California taxpayers $1.1 billion total. But it’s been years since that number was updated, and the legislature continues to be slow to provide information, now nine months after the end of an environmental lawsuit over the project. The project’s website hasn’t been updated in years, and it’s been since 2021 since lawmakers last held a hearing on this use of taxpayer dollars. As construction continues on the building and parking structure, KCRA 3 has submitted numerous Legislative Open Records Act (LORA) requests to the Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee overseeing the project to get updated cost information.The committee is made up of lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate Rules Committees. Joint Rules has repeatedly violated the open records law with these requests by not responding within the four-day time frame required under LORA. The committee’s chief administrative officer, Lia Lopez, often takes weeks or even months to acknowledge requests for information. Most recently, the Joint Rules Committee has completely ignored KCRA 3’s June 10 request for the Legislature’s contracts with Turner Construction Company for the project between 2019 and this year. In April, KCRA 3 requested information related to the “secure corridors”, or secret hallways, that lawmakers will have access to in the new building. The hallways were added following the January 6, 2021, attack at the nation’s capital. KCRA 3 asked for the total cost of security in the new annex. Joint Rules did not acknowledge or respond to the email until June. “Those security measures are an inextricable part of the project as a whole,” Lopez wrote. “We therefore have no existing records that isolate the work being done exclusively for security purposes or the contractors responsible for any specific security measures added to the project after January 6, 2021. Similarly, we have no existing records that itemize the security-related costs of the project, which are included within the overall cost of the project.” Lopez stated the Legislative Open Records Act does not require the Legislature to create a new record to provide information about security measures added to the project after January 6, 2021, or the cost of security measures included within the project. KCRA 3 also asked for the legislature’s plan for journalists in the new building: what workspaces will they have, where they will sit during session, and other aspects of accessing lawmakers in the new building. Lopez claimed those records were exempt from mandatory disclosure and stated they are also protected by a section of the law that states they can withhold records if “the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”In other words, the Joint Rules Committee suggested the public is better served if they do not know how journalists will have access to their lawmakers in the new Capitol Annex. “This project is less transparent than some of the top-secret military projects I worked on,” said Dick Cowan, a former member of the Historic State Capitol Commission who has been a vocal critic of the construction. “But the public’s money? No, that shouldn’t be a secret. And on all my other public projects-federal, California local government- cost transparency and telling the public where we’re headed with costs is always available, carefully available, carefully worded. Nothing hidden the way this has been hidden.” “The Legislative Open Records Act actually specifies that it is a fundamental and necessary right for the public to have access to legislative documents,” said Chris Micheli, an adjunct McGeorge School of Law professor and longtime California lobbyist. “Taxpayer dollars that are being expended on this project certainly are appropriate for public disclosure.” The committee, for years, has cloaked the construction in secrecy, forcing lawmakers, government officials and thousands of others to sign non-disclosure agreements to legally force them to stay tight-lipped about broad information about the taxpayer-funded building.Those confidentiality agreements are still in place. In April, the Joint Rules Committee said it would hold a public update on the project at some point this year. It has yet to say when. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
Project leaders overseeing the construction of an expensive new office building for California lawmakers and the governor have been repeatedly violating the state’s open records laws and continue to withhold key cost information.
The new office building is expected to cost almost as much as an NFL stadium and will end up being more expensive than the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. At last check, the Capitol Annex project was expected to cost California taxpayers $1.1 billion total.
But it’s been years since that number was updated, and the legislature continues to be slow to provide information, now nine months after the end of an environmental lawsuit over the project. The project’s website hasn’t been updated in years, and it’s been since 2021 since lawmakers last held a hearing on this use of taxpayer dollars.
As construction continues on the building and parking structure, KCRA 3 has submitted numerous Legislative Open Records Act (LORA) requests to the Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee overseeing the project to get updated cost information.
The committee is made up of lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate Rules Committees. Joint Rules has repeatedly violated the open records law with these requests by not responding within the four-day time frame required under LORA. The committee’s chief administrative officer, Lia Lopez, often takes weeks or even months to acknowledge requests for information.
Most recently, the Joint Rules Committee has completely ignored KCRA 3’s June 10 request for the Legislature’s contracts with Turner Construction Company for the project between 2019 and this year.
In April, KCRA 3 requested information related to the “secure corridors”, or secret hallways, that lawmakers will have access to in the new building. The hallways were added following the January 6, 2021, attack at the nation’s capital. KCRA 3 asked for the total cost of security in the new annex.
Joint Rules did not acknowledge or respond to the email until June.
“Those security measures are an inextricable part of the project as a whole,” Lopez wrote. “We therefore have no existing records that isolate the work being done exclusively for security purposes or the contractors responsible for any specific security measures added to the project after January 6, 2021. Similarly, we have no existing records that itemize the security-related costs of the project, which are included within the overall cost of the project.”
Lopez stated the Legislative Open Records Act does not require the Legislature to create a new record to provide information about security measures added to the project after January 6, 2021, or the cost of security measures included within the project.
KCRA 3 also asked for the legislature’s plan for journalists in the new building: what workspaces will they have, where they will sit during session, and other aspects of accessing lawmakers in the new building.
Lopez claimed those records were exempt from mandatory disclosure and stated they are also protected by a section of the law that states they can withhold records if “the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record.”
In other words, the Joint Rules Committee suggested the public is better served if they do not know how journalists will have access to their lawmakers in the new Capitol Annex.
“This project is less transparent than some of the top-secret military projects I worked on,” said Dick Cowan, a former member of the Historic State Capitol Commission who has been a vocal critic of the construction. “But the public’s money? No, that shouldn’t be a secret. And on all my other public projects-federal, California local government- cost transparency and telling the public where we’re headed with costs is always available, carefully available, carefully worded. Nothing hidden the way this has been hidden.”
“The Legislative Open Records Act actually specifies that it is a fundamental and necessary right for the public to have access to legislative documents,” said Chris Micheli, an adjunct McGeorge School of Law professor and longtime California lobbyist. “Taxpayer dollars that are being expended on this project certainly are appropriate for public disclosure.”
The committee, for years, has cloaked the construction in secrecy, forcing lawmakers, government officials and thousands of others to sign non-disclosure agreements to legally force them to stay tight-lipped about broad information about the taxpayer-funded building.
Those confidentiality agreements are still in place.
In April, the Joint Rules Committee said it would hold a public update on the project at some point this year. It has yet to say when.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel