While Gov. Gavin Newsom is top dog in Sacramento in so many ways, when it comes to operating secretively, the fact is that California’s chief executive has a lot of competition from legislators and other statewide and local officeholders.
Still, a recent move by the governor may take the cake in the creativity department for ways to keep the people’s business away from the people.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom has been sending cellphones to the heads of major businesses in California with his direct line programmed into them,” as Ashley Zavala of TV station KCRA reported.
And his office is by no means in denial about the project, which is financed by a nonprofit controlled by the governor and involves sending the phones to about 100 business leaders in the state.
“This was the governor’s idea to connect more directly with business leaders in the state. The feedback has been positive, and it’s led to valuable interactions,” said Izzy Gardon, the governor’s communications director.
Writing on X, Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher noted: “The Governor says he’s just being more responsive. I mean nothing shows transparency and openness more than a burner phone. Totally on the up and up.”
His sarcasm is well-placed: Whatever is discussed between business leaders and the governor using these phones will be shielded from the public, says a McGeorge School of Law adjunct professor who has worked as a lobbyist in the California Capitol.
Top secret agent man or not, Newsom has plenty of company in Sacramento in the effort to keep our government’s work on the Q.T.
As CalMatters reported this week, many of the proposals by members of the Legislature would make it harder to confront local officials at public meetings.
If we’re being fair, as we strive to be, some of the proposed legislation and policy-making is in response to the truly regrettable trend, exacerbated in the last five years by COVID lockdowns and anger over George Floyd’s murder by police, of public vitriol being expressed, from tiny school board meetings to the huge Los Angeles City Council, with much swearing and name-calling at the public-comment microphones.
Still, the response has been extreme: “lawmakers in the state Legislature have introduced about a dozen proposals that would make it harder to confront your local officials at public meetings and would shield more information from the public eye, according to an analysis of CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database.”
Many of those moves would allow public officials to continue the pandemic-era practice of holding most or all meetings remotely — supposedly because that makes it easier for electeds to show up rather than having to commute to a public building.
We understand the logic — and ultimately disagree with it. As state Sen. Roger Niello, R-Roseville, has said, “There’s just nothing more thrilling for a local elected official than to be in an in-person meeting and have people yell and scream at you, and they have the right to do that now.”
That’s not a partisan insight. “Public officials must be accountable: They should be required to attend in person, ensuring that the public can see them, speak to them directly, hold them responsible for decisions that impact their communities,” Dora Rose, deputy director of the League of Women Voters, recently told legislators.
Politics is not a private corporate board meeting. Its work must be carried out in front of the public. Bravo to the Californians who insist on letting the sunshine in.
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