How Transparent Should UC Foundations Be? The Governor Will Give Us His View Soon

Bill on university groups' public disclosure heads to Jerry Brown

CapitolAlert, 8/18/11

Leland Yee is hoping the third time's a charm. Senate Bill 8, which would expand the authority of the California Public Records Act on the state's college campuses, is heading to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration. The San Francisco Democrat's two previous bills to subject college auxiliary organizations, such as foundations, to the state's public records act were vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Senate approved amendments to the current version today, 36-1, sending it to Brown's desk.

…(L)ast year the foundation at California State University, Stanislaus, declined to report how much it was paying former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to speak at a fundraiser -- until it was forced to do so by the courts. Yee made national headlines by drawing attention to the case. Yee's two previous bills were opposed by the University of California and the California State University, which said many donors did not want to have their identities revealed.

But UC and CSU dropped their opposition to the current bill after Yee agreed to amend it to protect the anonymity of donors except in situations in which the donor receives something from the university worth more than $2,500 or in which the donor receives a no-bid contract within five years of the donation. The bill also does not grant anonymity to donors who attempt to influence curriculum or university operations.

Full story at: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/08/university-public-disclosure-senate-bill-8.html

Yee is running for mayor of San Francisco along with several other candidates. If Brown doesn’t sign the bill, it probably will have more to do with SF politics than anything else.

Anyway, being transparent doesn’t always produce desirable results. Maybe you can be too transparent:

Update: Even the good senator has some transparency issues, apparently: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/19/MNEF1KO6S1.DTL