Yee bill on better public disclosure of state contracts, audits gets governor's signature

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday announced that he has signed into law a bill that will shed greater light on state government contracts.

Senate Bill 1696 will now also open up the results of governmental audits and reviews of public agencies. Authored by state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) the bill would prohibit a state or local agency from allowing an outside entity to control the disclosure of information that is otherwise subject to the California Public Records Act.

Additionally, the bill would specify that regardless of any contract term to the contrary, a contract for the purpose of conducting a review, audit, or report between a private entity and a state or local agency is subject to the same disclosure requirements as other public records.

The need for the measure arose from the denial of a January 2007 request by the San Francisco Chronicle to the University of California at San Francisco. UCSF refused to release an independent review of its finances or even the name of the firm that was issued a contract for $165,000 to carry out the review.  UCSF claimed the auditing firm controlled the confidentiality of the contract and the audit.