SACRAMENTO — A bill that would force California’s public officials to reveal more about their wealth, property and business interests easily passed its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.
The Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee voted 5-0 to pass AB 10, which would tighten up the disclosure requirements for the “Form 700” economic-interest reports officials must file each year. The bill, by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Gatto at Wednesday’s hearing cited this newspaper’s October report about Gov. Jerry Brown’s vague disclosures of his business interests and partners as an example of why changes are needed. The original disclosure requirements were included in the Political Reform Act of 1974, he noted, and “the law has not been modernized much at all ever since.”
“Simply put, the public has a right to know this,” he said.
Committee Chairman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, D-Culver City, said despite some concerns about certain details of the bill, “we get that you are simply trying to get a little sunshine in places they may not be.”
The bill would require officials to report not only names of businesses they invest in, but also “a thorough and detailed description of the business entity’s activities” and “the names of all business partners who share a financial interest in the business entity.”
That’s often left unclear or simply not reported under current law, making it hard to detect possible conflicts of interest. For example, Brown’s 2013 disclosure reported between $10,001 and $100,000 invested each with “Round Two Investment Partners” and with “Clydesdale Partners,” both described only as an “investment in a variety of interests” without naming any other investors. The governor declined to provide any further details to this newspaper in October; he listed these again this way in his 2014 report, filed in March.
Brown’s 2013 and 2014 disclosures also reported interests in Edgewater Park Plaza LLC and Madison Park Holdings Inc. without specifying his partners or those entities’ specific properties. This newspaper found these interests were stakes in millions of dollars of East Bay real estate with developers Phil Tagami — who did a lot of business with Oakland when Brown was mayor — and John Protopappas, who was Brown’s landlord.
The bill also would force public officials to provide more detail on the value of investments.
Officials now must disclose whether each particular investment is worth between $2,000 and $10,000, $10,000 and $100,000, $100,000 and $1 million, or more than $1 million — ranges set in the 1980s and wide enough that the actual value can’t be pinned down. Gatto’s bill still wouldn’t require absolute specificity, but would set new value ranges: $5,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $100,000, $100,000 to $250,000, $250,000 to $500,000, $500,000 to $1 million, $1 million to $2 million, or more than $2 million.
Real estate would be treated differently, with officials required to disclose what kind of interest they have in a property, the property’s precise location, and their interest’s approximate fair market value.
Gatto’s bill would set more detailed ranges for income as well. And it would for the first time require public officials to specify any instances in the previous year in which a financial interest caused them to recuse themselves from making an official decision.
Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/Josh_Richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.
