Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Last year, MP Blanca Pacheco successfully pushed through two pieces of legislation limiting state transparency. Now the Downey Democrat has another bill that would be successful obtaining government documents more difficult for the public.
As Yue Stella Yu of CalMatters explains, Pacheco’s latest offering would allow public agencies to charge an unspecified, unlimited fee to fulfill a public records request if the document search takes a government official more than two hours. Agencies can also charge a fee if workers spend more than 10 hours in a month searching for records requested by the same person. Journalists and educational or scientific institutions will be exempt from the fees.
- Pachecoin a statement: “This bill is intended to address a narrow set of costly, resource-intensive requests that can delay agencies’ ability to respond to other records requests.”
Pacheco cited examples of how time-consuming it can be to fulfill records requests, including one person who submitted more than 100 requests to Fontana with the stated purpose of disrupting the city’s operations. The effort cost more than $300,000.
But in 2020, the California Supreme Court issued a ruling saying governments can’t charge to search and redact public records because that would threaten Californians’ right to access.
In 2025, California lawmakers also passed two bills that made it easier for agencies to redact records of police misconduct and allowed more state officials to withhold personally identifying information — both authored by Pacheco.
Be part of the conversations driving California forward at the CalMatters Festival of Ideas on May 21 in Sacramento. Get your tickets now.
Join CalMatters on April 22 in Pasadena for a conversation on rebuilding after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025. As communities move from emergency response to long-term recovery, experts will explore how labor shortages are shaping recovery efforts and what it will take to strengthen the flow of skilled trades. Register today.
Other stories you should know
The sheriff insists that confiscating hundreds of thousands of ballots is normal
A defiant Chad Bianco — the Riverside County sheriff who last month confiscated more than 650,000 ballots from the county’s voter registry — denies any wrongdoing in recount efforts for Proposition 50.
In an interview with Jeanne Kuang of CalMatters, Bianco said his recount efforts are unrelated to his gubernatorial bid, which he is currently running with fellow Republican Steve Hilton.
- Bianco: “You’re all making it political. We’re doing the same thing we do every day, and I’m not going to justify it to people who have no idea. … It’s normal law enforcement.”
Bianco began looking into the November 2025 special election after a local election activist group accused election officials of inflating the number of ballots counted. But voter fraud is extremely rare in California and the country, and even Bianco said he “has not found widespread election fraud in Riverside County.”
Pay your taxes carefully if you want to run for governor
Stella also reports how a dispute between a Green Party member and California’s secretary of state is renewing scrutiny of a state law requiring gubernatorial candidates to file tax returns.
On Thursday, a Sacramento judge dismissed the lawsuit of Rudolph “Butch” Ware, a UC Santa Barbara associate professor who is trying to run for governor under the Green Party. Ware claims Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office unfairly disqualified him for seeking a seat in the June primary despite filing the required tax documents.
But Weber’s office claims Ware’s documents contain numerous inconsistencies. The judge sided with Weber and said the office had demonstrated an effort to work with Ware to correct his documents.
Ware also questioned a 2019 state law requiring candidates to file tax returns to be eligible to vote, arguing that only the California Constitution establishes qualifications for office, not the Legislature.
And finally: an official day of agriculture
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Thursday to rename Cesar Chavez Day Farmworker Day. The California Legislature moved quickly to rename the holiday March 31 after that New York Times found that the labor leader had sexually abused young girls in the early 1960s. Read more by Nadia Lathan of CalMatters.
California voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: Newsom wants to spend $19 million on a marketing campaign to portray California as a country with a vibrant economy, despite the fact that the state’s economy not doing so well these days.
The California Network for Sickle Cell Care has helped more than 1,200 patients access preventive care, manage complications and avoid sickle cell crises — but needs sustained investment from the state to continue, writes Mary E. Brownpresident and CEO of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation.
Other things worth your time:
