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109-666: The California Public Records Act (Statutes of 1968, Chapter 1473; currently codified as Division 10 of Title 1 of the California Government Code ) was a law passed by the California State Legislature and signed by governor Ronald Reagan in 1968 requiring inspection or disclosure of governmental records to the public upon request, unless exempted by law. The law is similar to the Freedom of Information Act , except that "the people have

218-757: A grassroots campaign to, in his own words, "take back America from the confederacy of corruption , careerism , and campaign consulting in Washington". In his stump speech , first used while announcing his candidacy on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia , Brown said he would accept campaign contributions from individuals only and that he would not accept more than $ 100. Continuing with his populist reform theme, he assailed what he dubbed "the bipartisan Incumbent Party in Washington" and called for term limits for members of Congress . Citing various recent scandals on Capitol Hill , particularly

327-585: A toll-free telephone number . During the campaign, Brown's repetition of this number and moralistic language led some to call him a "political televangelist " with an "anti-politics gospel". Despite poor showings in the Iowa caucus (1.6%) and the New Hampshire primary (8%), Brown won narrow victories in Maine , Colorado , Nevada , and Vermont , but he continued to be considered a small threat for much of

436-572: A " strong mayor " structure, where the mayor would act as chief executive over the nonpolitical and thus the various city departments, and break tie votes on the Oakland City Council. In November 1998, Oakland's electorate voted by a landslide margin of 3 to 1 in support of Measure X, which would shift the city government to the strong mayor model for a period of six years. A referendum permanently extending Measure X later passed in 2004, after failing to pass in 2002, thus making permanent

545-454: A "first step in bringing us toward a solar-powered space satellite to provide solar energy for this planet"; and, in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident , opposition to nuclear power . On the subject of the 1979 energy crisis , Brown decried the " Faustian bargain " that he claimed Carter had entered into with the oil industry , and declared that he would greatly increase federal funding of research into solar power . He endorsed

654-664: A German immigrant, settled in California in 1852 during the California Gold Rush . Brown was a member of the California Cadet Corps at St. Ignatius High School , where he graduated in 1955. In 1955, Brown entered Santa Clara University for a year and left to attend Sacred Heart Novitiate , a Jesuit novice house in Los Gatos , intent on becoming a Catholic priest . Brown resided at

763-421: A bill, AB 473 (Chau), to carry out the recommended recodification. Alongside, he presented a companion bill, AB 474 (Chau), to bring about the associated revisions. Both these bills were successfully passed, as seen in 2021 Cal. Stat. chs. 614, 615. However, a few of the associated revisions were invalidated by substantive bills that impacted the same code sections. These cancelled revisions have been reintroduced in

872-549: A case, "unless you want as much of a future in this state as Jerry Brown". The assistant DA responds, "Who's Jerry Brown?" In Oakland, Brown became involved as an activist in local political matters, including bay-front development and campaign finance reform. In 1996, Brown unsuccessfully urged Oakland mayor Elihu Harris to appoint him to a seat on the Oakland Port Commission. After Oakland mayor Elihu Harris decided against seeking reelection, Brown ran in

981-474: A court is charged with ascertaining whether nondisclosure was justified under either of these statutes. Because the CPRA was modeled after the federal Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. Section 552 et seq, courts may look to case law under FOIA in construing the CPRA. The California Supreme Court held that when a public official or employee uses a personal account and/or device to communicate about

1090-416: A firearm at a person, an incident in which police use of force resulted in death or great bodily injury, an incident in which police committed sexual assault against a member of the public, or sustained findings of police dishonesty. SB 1421 also sets relatively short timelines for withholding such records during a criminal investigation or criminal enforcement proceeding. In 2021, Assemblymember Chau proposed

1199-708: A fundamental interest of citizenship" and has emphasized that "maximum disclosure of the conduct of governmental operations [is] to be promoted by the act." By promoting prompt public access to government records, the CPRA is "intended to safeguard the accountability of government to the public." As the California Supreme Court recognized in CBS v. Block: Implicit in a democratic process is the notion that government should be accountable for its actions. In order to verify accountability, individuals must have access to government files. Such access permits checks against

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1308-578: A long time ago." Brown sponsored nearly two dozen crime initiatives to reduce the crime rate, although crime decreased by 13 percent overall, the city still suffered a "57 percent spike in homicides his final year in office, to 148 overall". Brown's largely successful first term as mayor of Oakland was documented in a one-hour KQED documentary, "The Celebrity and the City" (2001) that evaluated his record in dealing with his four stated goals: reducing crime, improving education, attracting 10,000 new residents to

1417-472: A multi-million dollar work-live complex, serving both as his residence and as a workspace. Among other features, it included a broadcast studio and a 400-seat auditorium. Brown launched a national talk radio show from his Oakland complex, which he would continue to produce until October 1997. In 1995, with Brown's political career at a low point, in the motion picture Jade , the fictional governor of California tells an assistant district attorney to drop

1526-638: A number of other U.S. jurisdictions, especially Puerto Rico. For example, on March 1, 1901, Puerto Rico enacted a Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure which were modeled after the California Penal Code, and on March 10, 1904, it enacted a Code of Civil Procedure modeled after the California Code of Civil Procedure. Thus, California case law interpreting those codes was treated as persuasive authority in Puerto Rico. In 1941,

1635-906: A pair of antisemitic comments about Jews in general, and New York City's Jews in particular, while running for president in 1984, was still mistrusted by the Jewish community. Jackson also had ties to Louis Farrakhan , infamous for his own antisemitic statements, and to Yasir Arafat , the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization . Brown's polling numbers suffered. On April 7, he lost narrowly to Bill Clinton in Wisconsin (37%–34%), and dramatically in New York (41%–26%). Brown continued to campaign, but won no further primaries. Despite being overwhelmingly outspent, he won upset victories in seven states and his "votes won to

1744-707: A personal residence, and in the Lakeside Apartments District near Lake Merritt . The 10K plan has touched the historic Old Oakland district, the Chinatown district, the Uptown district, and Downtown . Brown surpassed the stated goal of attracting 10,000 residents according to city records, and built more affordable housing than previous mayoral administrations. Brown had campaigned on fixing Oakland's schools, but "bureaucratic battles" dampened his efforts. He concedes he never had control of

1853-418: A picture of a hippie - fascist state, satirizing what they considered his mandating of liberal ideas in a fascist manner, commenting on what lyricist Jello Biafra saw as the corrosive nature of power. The imaginary Brown had become President Brown presiding over secret police and gas chambers. Biafra later said in an interview with Nardwuar that he now feels differently about Brown; as it turned out, Brown

1962-453: A plan to make certain provisions in the Act optional for local agencies. The move was done in order to save "tens of millions of dollars" in state reimbursements to local agencies that comply with the Act, according to Legislative Analyst's Office projections. The changes were added to the 2013 budget as rider bills AB 76 and SB 71 , the former of which was vetoed by Jerry Brown . According to

2071-455: A politician. I then come back into the world of California and politics, with critical distance from some of my more comfortable assumptions." He also visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India , where he ministered to the sick in one of her hospices . He explained, "Politics is a power struggle to get to the top of the heap. Calcutta and Mother Teresa are about working with those who are at

2180-527: A program of tax credits for those who do not smoke or otherwise damage their health, saying: "Those who abuse their bodies should not abuse the rest of us by taking our tax dollars." Brown also called for expanding the use of acupuncture and midwifery . As Brown's campaign began to attract more members of what some more conservative commentators described as "the fringe", including activists like Jane Fonda , Tom Hayden , and Jesse Jackson , his polling numbers began to suffer. Brown received only 10 percent of

2289-419: A reputation as a fiscal conservative . The American Conservative later noted he was "much more of a fiscal conservative than Governor Reagan ". His fiscal restraint resulted in one of the biggest budget surpluses in state history, roughly $ 5 billion. For his personal life, Brown refused many of the privileges and perks of the office, forgoing the newly constructed 20,000 square-foot governor's residence in

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2398-596: A resurgent downtown, and encouraging the arts. Brown was reelected as mayor in 2002 . In 2004, Brown expressed interest to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General of California in the 2006 election, and in May 2004, he formally filed to run. He defeated his Democratic primary opponent, Los Angeles city attorney Rocky Delgadillo , 63% to 37%. In the general election, Brown defeated Republican state senator Charles Poochigian 56.3% to 38.2%, one of

2507-420: A separate volume. The unofficial annotated codes include those statutes either as appendixes to the codes in which they probably should have been codified, or within annotations to particular code sections; Deering's also prints the uncodified initiative acts in a separate volume. Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as

2616-557: A two-thirds supermajority to raise taxes. Max Neiman, a professor at the Institute of Governmental Studies at University of California, Berkeley, credited Brown for "bailing out local government and school districts", but felt it was harmful "because it made it easier for people to believe that Proposition 13 wasn't harmful". In an interview in 2014, Brown indicated that a "war chest" would have helped his campaign for an alternative to Proposition 13. Brown began his first campaign for

2725-531: A variety of other resolutions which are not laws of general application, such as annual budget bills, appropriation bills for specific periods of time, acts authorizing the purchase or disposition of land by the state government, and acts authorizing the issuance of bonds which terminate automatically upon repayment of the bonds. The legislature also regularly approves resolutions honoring the accomplishments of various distinguished persons. Because of their limited application, all such matters are not incorporated into

2834-679: Is the Family Code, which was split off from the Civil Code in 1994. Although there is a Code of Civil Procedure, there is no Code of Criminal Procedure. Instead, criminal procedure in California is codified in Part 2 of the Penal Code, while Part 1 is devoted to substantive criminal law. The Codes contain, or are supposed to only contain general statutory law, with the emphasis on the word "general". The legislature also regularly enacts

2943-750: The Chicago Sun-Times , picked up on the nickname from Brown's girlfriend at the time, Linda Ronstadt , who was quoted in a 1978 Rolling Stone magazine interview humorously calling him "Moonbeam". A year later, Royko expressed his regret for publicizing the nickname, and in 1991 Royko disavowed it entirely, proclaiming Brown to be just as serious as any other politician. Some notable figures were given priority correspondence access to him in either advisory or personal roles. These included United Farm Workers of America founder Cesar Chavez , Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard , labor leader Jack Henning , and Charles Manatt , then-Chairman of

3052-621: The California Fair Political Practices Commission . In 1974, Brown ran in a highly contested Democratic primary for Governor of California against speaker of the California Assembly Bob Moretti , San Francisco mayor Joseph L. Alioto , Representative Jerome R. Waldie , and others. Brown won the primary with the name recognition of his father, Pat Brown, whom many people admired for his progressive administration. In

3161-488: The California Statutes ), and were also published by commercial publishers in various versions, including as a set in 1872. In lieu of an official set, unofficial annotated codes are widely available from private publishers. West publishes West's Annotated California Codes and LexisNexis publishes Deering's California Codes Annotated . Although Deering's is much older, West is the more popular of

3270-655: The California Supreme Court and won cases against Standard Oil of California , International Telephone and Telegraph , Gulf Oil , and Mobil for election law violations. In addition, he forced legislators to comply with campaign disclosure laws. Brown also drafted and helped to pass the California Political Reform Act of 1974, Proposition 9, passed by 70% of California's voters in June 1974. Among other provisions, it established

3379-544: The Department of Education ". Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton. Due to his limited budget, Brown began to use a mixture of alternative media and unusual fundraising techniques. Unable to pay for actual commercials, he frequently used cable television and talk radio interviews as a form of free media to get his message out. To raise funds, he purchased

California Public Records Act - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-531: The Oakland Tribune , Fresno Bee , and Visalia Times-Delta, published editorials against the changes. Because of the outcry from the media, state leaders backed down within the week and reversed the changes. The Assembly passed a measure to revoke that provision in the budget bill, which Jerry Brown signed into law. In September 2013, the legislature approved a constitutional amendment proposal, authored by state senator Mark Leno , which would incorporate

3597-639: The Peripheral Canal project to transport water from near Sacramento around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Central Valley Project and export it to southern California. It was submitted to the voters for approval as a ballot proposition in 1982, but was turned down. In 1981, Brown, who had established a reputation as a strong environmentalist, was confronted with a serious medfly infestation in

3706-550: The San Francisco Bay Area . The state's agricultural industry advised him, and the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ( APHIS ), to authorize airborne spraying of the region. Initially, in accordance with his environmental protection stance, he chose to authorize ground-level spraying only. Unfortunately, the infestation spread as the medfly reproductive cycle out-paced

3815-948: The United States Senate that same year , losing to San Diego mayor and future governor Pete Wilson . After traveling abroad, Brown returned to California and served as the sixth Chairman of the California Democratic Party (1989–1991), attempting to run for U.S. president once more in 1992 but losing the Democratic primary to Bill Clinton . He then moved to Oakland, where he hosted a talk radio show; Brown soon returned to public life, serving as mayor of Oakland (1999–2007) and attorney general of California (2007–2011). He ran for his third and fourth terms as governor in 2010 and 2014 , his eligibility to do so having stemmed from California's constitutional grandfather clause . On October 7, 2013, he became

3924-454: The death penalty and vetoed it as governor, which the legislature overrode in 1977. He also appointed judges who opposed capital punishment. One of these appointments, Rose Bird as the chief justice of the California Supreme Court , was voted out in 1987 after a strong campaign financed by business interests upset by her "pro-labor" and "pro-free speech" rulings. The death penalty was only "a trumped-up excuse" to use against her, even though

4033-457: The " depletion allowance ", a tax break for the state's oil industry, despite the efforts of lobbyist Joe Shell , a former intraparty rival to Nixon. In 1975, Brown opposed Vietnamese immigration to California, saying that the state had enough poor people. He added, “There is something a little strange about saying ‘Let's bring in 500,000 more people’ when we can't take care of the 1 million (Californians) out of work.” Brown strongly opposed

4142-534: The 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party , he was elected secretary of state of California in 1970; Brown later served as mayor of Oakland from 1999 to 2007 and attorney general of California from 2007 to 2011. He was both the oldest and sixth-youngest governor of California due to the 28-year gap between his second and third terms. Upon completing his fourth term in office, Brown became

4251-548: The Bird Court consistently upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty. In 1960, he lobbied his father, then governor, to spare the life of Caryl Chessman and reportedly won a 60-day stay for him. Brown was both in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment and opposed to Proposition 13 , the latter of which would decrease property taxes and greatly reduce revenue to cities and counties. When Proposition 13 passed in June 1978, he heavily cut state spending, and along with

4360-644: The Brown and Clinton campaigns, and Brown was the first political figure to criticize Bill Clinton over what became known as the Whitewater controversy . After his 1992 presidential bid, Brown had moved from the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco to the Jack London District neighborhood of Oakland, California , an "overwhelmingly minority city of 400,000". He constructed

4469-400: The CPRA are set forth under Section 7921 and are specific as to certain records or types of records, but under Section 7922 a general exemption exists where, on the facts of the particular case, "the public interest served by not making the record public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the record". In reviewing the propriety of an agency decision to withhold records,

California Public Records Act - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-514: The California Attorney General, another court has stated: This definition is intended to cover every conceivable kind of record that is involved in the governmental process and will pertain to any new form of record-keeping instrument as it is developed. Only purely personal information unrelated to 'the conduct of the public's business' could be considered exempt from this definition, i.e., the shopping list phoned from home,

4687-660: The California Practice Act of 1851 (drafted with the help of Stephen Field), which was directly based upon the New York Code of Civil Procedure of 1850 (the Field Code). In turn, it was the California Practice Act that served as the foundation of the California Code of Civil Procedure. New York never enacted Field's proposed civil or political codes, and belatedly enacted his proposed penal and criminal procedure codes only after California, but they were

4796-565: The California State Democratic Party. Mail was routed as VIP to be delivered directly to the governor. However, it is unclear as to exactly how long this may have occurred. In 1978, San Francisco punk band the Dead Kennedys ' first single, " California über alles ", from the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables , was released; it was performed from the perspective of then-governor Brown painting

4905-567: The California State Water Board. Brown also reorganized the California Arts Council , boosting its funding by 1300 percent and appointing artists to the council, and appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor. In 1977, he sponsored the "first-ever tax incentive for rooftop solar", among many environmental initiatives. In 1975, Brown obtained the repeal of

5014-467: The California Supreme Court made clear that under this writ procedure, trial court orders are reviewable on their merits. Thus, when a trial court order under the CPRA is reviewed by an appellate court, the independent review standard is employed for legal issues and factual findings made by the trial court will be upheld if they are based on substantial evidence. On November 2, 2004, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 59 . Commonly called

5123-553: The Code Commission from codes prepared for the state of New York by the great law reformer David Dudley Field II . As a result of the Gold Rush, many New York lawyers had migrated to California, including Field's brother, Stephen Johnson Field , who would ultimately serve as California's fifth Chief Justice before being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The strong New York influence on early California law started with

5232-678: The Code as a mere restatement of the common law . For example, in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. , the Supreme Court acknowledged the Legislature's original intent in enacting Civil Code section 1714 to codify a contributory negligence scheme subject to the last clear chance doctrine, then held the legislature had not intended to freeze the common law in place and proceeded to judicially adopt comparative negligence . In contrast, other codes, such as

5341-529: The Codes. The Codes form an important part of California law . However, they must be read in combination with the federal and state constitutions, federal and state case law, and the California Code of Regulations, in order to understand how they are actually interpreted and enforced in court. The Civil Code is particularly difficult to understand since the Supreme Court of California has treated parts of

5450-542: The Commission stated: "The California statutory law is in a deplorable condition ... law writers and publishers unite in considering it the worst statutory law in the country." To staff the new permanent incarnation of the Code Commission, the state Legislature simply appointed the Legislative Counsel as the secretary of the Commission. Thus, as a practical matter, most of the real work was performed by

5559-524: The Democratic nomination for president on March 16, 1976, late in the primary season and over a year after some candidates had started campaigning. Brown declared: "The country is rich, but not so rich as we have been led to believe. The choice to do one thing may preclude another. In short, we are entering an era of limits." Brown's name began appearing on primary ballots in May and he won in Maryland , Nevada , and his home state of California. He missed

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5668-494: The General Election on November 5, 1974, Brown was elected Governor of California over California state controller Houston I. Flournoy ; Republicans ascribed the loss to anti-Republican feelings from Watergate , the election being held only ninety days after President Richard Nixon resigned from office. Brown succeeded Republican governor Ronald Reagan , who retired after two terms. After taking office, Brown gained

5777-612: The Legislative Counsel's deputies and then approved by the Code Commissioners. The Commission spent the next 24 years analyzing the massive body of uncodified law in the California Statutes and drafting almost all the other codes. By 1953, when the Code Commission completed its assigned task and issued its final report on September 1 of that year, 25 Codes were then in existence. That year,

5886-465: The Legislative Counsel's online copy, but probably should have been codified as they are laws of general application. For example, certain initiative acts could not be codified by an act of the legislature because they were originally enacted by popular vote of the electorate. The final Code Commission report of September 1, 1953 recommended that such statutes should be published in an appendix to whichever code they are most relevant and not grouped into

5995-598: The Legislature, evident in SB 1380 (Committee on Judiciary). On January 1, 2023, the California Public Records Act was officially recodified from §6250-§6270.5 to §7920-§7931 of the government code as part of the newly added Division 10 of Title 1: Access to Public Records. California Government Code The 29 California Codes currently in effect are as follows: The following codes have been repealed: The California Codes have been influential in

6104-491: The Legislature, spent much of the $ 5 billion surplus to meet the proposition's requirements and help offset the revenue losses which made cities, counties, and schools more dependent on the state. His actions in response to the proposition earned him praise from Proposition 13 author Howard Jarvis who went as far as to make a television commercial for Brown just before his successful re-election bid in 1978 . The controversial proposition immediately cut tax revenues and required

6213-595: The Louisiana delegate selection convention; thus, Louisiana was the only southern state to not support Southerners Carter or Alabama governor George Wallace . Despite this success, he was unable to stall Carter's momentum, and his rival was nominated on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention . Brown finished third with roughly 300 delegate votes, narrowly behind Congressman Morris Udall and Carter. Brown won re-election in 1978 against Republican state attorney general Evelle J. Younger . Brown appointed

6322-546: The Probate Code and the Evidence Code, are considered to have fully displaced the common law, meaning that cases interpreting their provisions always try to give effect whenever possible to the Legislature's intent. As noted above, the Legislative Counsel maintains an online website with the official text of the Codes. The original four codes were printed as separate state documents in 1872 (but not as part of

6431-712: The Public Records Act into the California State Constitution . The amendment clarifies that local governments must comply with requests for publicly available documents, and requires local governments to pay the costs of those requests in full. The proposed amendment went to the voters for approval in June 2014, and was passed with 61.8% of the vote. In 2018, the legislature enacted SB 1421 , which went into effect on January 1, 2019. The law provides that public records are not confidential if they pertain to an incident in which police discharged

6540-504: The Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly joined the nationwide movement towards transferring civil procedure and evidentiary law into a system of rules promulgated by the courts, then abolished the judicial power to promulgate rules in 1946, then reinstated it in 1952 (subject to the right of the legislature to amend court rules before they went into effect). Eventually, after much of its content was superseded by

6649-504: The Republican Evelle Younger by 1.3 million votes, the largest margin in California history. But Brown had trouble gaining traction in both fundraising and polling for the presidential nomination. This was widely believed to be because of the more prominent candidate Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts . Brown's 1980 platform, which he declared to be the natural result of combining Buckminster Fuller 's visions of

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6758-482: The Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of Evidence, most of the Code of Civil Procedure of Puerto Rico was rendered obsolete and was therefore repealed. However, although the Penal Code of Puerto Rico underwent extensive recodification and renumbering in 1974, many of its sections still bear a strong resemblance to their California relatives. The Code of Guam , implemented in 1933 by Governor George A. Alexander ,

6867-538: The Senate seat held by the retiring Alan Cranston . Although Brown consistently led in the polls for both the nomination and the general election, he abandoned the campaign, deciding instead to run for the presidency for the third time. When Brown announced his intention to run for president against President George H. W. Bush , many in the media and his own party dismissed his campaign as having little chance of gaining significant support. Ignoring them, Brown embarked on

6976-553: The Sunshine Amendment, it added Article I, Section 3(b) to the California Constitution, which reads in part: The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny. In 2013, as part of budget negotiations, the Legislature approved

7085-430: The arbitrary exercise of official power and secrecy in the political process. In accordance with this policy, public records are broadly defined to include "any writing containing information relating to the conduct of a public's business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristic[.]" Citing with approval an even broader definition of public records adopted by

7194-654: The area. Brown continued his predecessor Elihu Harris's public policy of supporting downtown housing development in the area defined as the Central Business District in Oakland's 1998 General Plan. Since Brown worked toward the stated goal of bringing an additional 10,000 residents to Downtown Oakland , his plan was known as the " 10k Plan ". It has resulted in redevelopment projects in the Jack London District , where Brown himself had earlier purchased and later sold an industrial warehouse which he used as

7303-507: The basis of the codes enacted by California in 1872. As noted above, the initial four codes were not fully comprehensive. As a result, California statutory law became disorganized as uncodified statutes continued to pile up in the California Statutes. After many years of on-and-off Code Commissions, the California Code Commission was finally established as a permanent government agency in 1929. In its first report,

7412-453: The bills, local agencies would no longer be required to provide the following, but are encouraged to follow them as "best practices": Open government advocates and several California newspapers came out strongly against the measure. Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher's Association, called the move "the worst assault on the public's right to know I have seen in my 18 years of doing this." Several newspapers, including

7521-451: The bottom of the heap. And to see them as no different from yourself, and their needs as important as your needs. And you're there to serve them, and doing that you are attaining as great a state of being as you can." Upon his return from abroad in 1988, Brown announced that he would stand as a candidate to become chairman of the California Democratic Party , and won against investment banker Steve Westly . Although Brown greatly expanded

7630-415: The campaign. It was not until shortly after Super Tuesday , when the field had been narrowed to Brown, former senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and front-runner then-governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas , that Brown began to emerge as a major contender in the eyes of the press. On March 17, Brown received a strong third-place showing in the Illinois and Michigan primaries, and Tsongas dropped out of

7739-437: The city's 1998 mayoral election as an independent "having left the Democratic Party, blasting what he called the 'deeply corrupted' two-party system ". He won with 59% of the vote in a field of ten candidates. Prior to taking office, Brown campaigned to get the approval of the electorate to convert Oakland's "weak mayor" political structure , which structured the mayor as chairman of the city council and official greeter, to

7848-473: The city's shift to the strong mayor model of governance. The political left had hoped for some of the more progressive politics from Brown's earlier governorship, but found Brown, as mayor, to be "more pragmatic than progressive, more interested in downtown redevelopment and economic growth than political ideology". As mayor, he invited the U.S. Marine Corps to use Oakland harbor lands for mock military exercises as part of Operation Urban Warrior . The city

7957-448: The conduct of public business, such as e-mails or text messages, the applicable writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act. To facilitate prompt public access to public records, court orders either directing disclosure of public records or supporting an agency's decision of nondisclosure are immediately reviewable by an appellate court by way of a petition seeking issuance of an extraordinary writ. In 1991,

8066-586: The deadline in Oregon , but he ran as a write-in candidate and finished in third behind Jimmy Carter and Senator Frank Church of Idaho . Brown is often credited with winning the New Jersey and Rhode Island primaries, but in reality, uncommitted slates of delegates that Brown advocated in those states finished first. With support from Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards , Brown won a majority of delegates at

8175-436: The failed 1978 Briggs Initiative , which sought to ban homosexuals from working in California's public schools, for his increased support of gay rights . The governor also signed AB 489, The Consenting Adult Sex Act , which decriminalized homosexual behavior between adults, adding to this reputation. He did, however, sign AB 607, which barred homosexual couples from receiving civil marriage licenses, in 1977. Brown championed

8284-516: The famous supporter of supply-side economics who created the Laffer curve . This plan, which called for the replacement of the progressive income tax with a flat tax and a value added tax , both at a fixed 13% rate, was decried by his opponents as regressive. Nevertheless, it was endorsed by The New York Times , The New Republic , and Forbes , and its raising of taxes on corporations and elimination of various loopholes that tended to favor

8393-754: The first openly gay judge in the United States when he named Stephen Lachs to serve on the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979. In 1981, he also appointed the first openly lesbian judge in the United States, Mary C. Morgan , to the San Francisco Municipal Court. Brown completed his second term having appointed a total of five gay judges, including Rand Schrader and Jerold Krieger . Through his first term as governor, Brown had not appointed any openly gay people to any position, but he cited

8502-681: The fourth longest-serving governor in U.S. history , serving 16 years and 5 days in office. Born in San Francisco , he is the son of Bernice Layne Brown and Pat Brown , who was the 32nd governor of California (1959–1967). After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School , he practiced law and began his political career as a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees (1969–1971). He

8611-544: The future and E. F. Schumacher 's theory of " Buddhist economics ", was much expanded from 1976. His "era of limits" slogan was replaced by a promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe". Three main planks of his platform were a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment ; a promise to increase funds for the space program as

8720-518: The governor's office be fixed, Brown responded: “That hole will save the state at least $ 500 million, because legislators cannot come down and pound on my desk demanding lots of money for their pet programs while looking at a hole in my rug!” As governor, Brown took a strong interest in environmental issues . He appointed J. Baldwin to work in the newly created California Office of Appropriate Technology, Sim Van der Ryn as State Architect, Stewart Brand as Special Advisor, John Bryson as chairman of

8829-427: The governorship in 1982, succeeding Brown, and was re-elected overwhelmingly in 1986. After his Senate defeat in 1982, many considered Brown's political career to be over. Brown traveled to Japan to study Buddhism , studying with Christian/Zen practitioner Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle under Yamada Koun-roshi . In an interview, he explained, "Since politics is based on illusions, zazen definitely provides new insights for

8938-491: The idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth. He suggested that the Defense Department cut back on support troops while beefing up the number of combat troops. Brown opposed Kennedy's call for universal national health insurance and opposed Carter's call for an employer mandate to provide catastrophic private health insurance labeling it socialist. As an alternative, he suggested

9047-436: The insects' reproductive cycle. Ultimately, the infestation was eradicated, but both the governor's delay and the scale of the action have remained controversial ever since. Some people claimed that malathion was toxic to humans, as well as insects. In response to such concerns, Brown's chief of staff, B. T. Collins , staged a news conference during which he publicly drank a glass of malathion. Many people complained that, while

9156-490: The largest margins of victory in any statewide California race. In the final weeks leading up to Election Day, Brown's eligibility to run for attorney general was challenged in what Brown called a "political stunt by a Republican office seeker" ( Contra Costa County Republican Central Committee chairman and state GOP vice-chair candidate Tom Del Beccaro). Plaintiffs claimed Brown did not meet eligibility according to California Government Code §12503, "No person shall be eligible to

9265-543: The legislature replaced the Code Commission with the California Law Revision Commission . Since then, the CLRC has been tasked with regularly reviewing the codes and proposing various amendments to the legislature. Most of these are simple maintenance amendments to ensure that statutory cross-references are properly updated to add new laws or omit laws which no longer exist. The newest code

9374-403: The letter to a public officer from a friend which is totally void of reference to governmental activities. Moreover, unless the public records of a local agency are exempt from the provisions of the CPRA, they must be made available for public inspection. Exemptions must be narrowly construed and the public agency bears the burden of proving that an exemption applies. Most of the exemptions under

9483-408: The longest-serving governor in the history of California , surpassing Earl Warren . Brown was born in San Francisco , California, the only son of four children born to district attorney of San Francisco and later governor of California, Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr., and his wife, Bernice Layne . Brown's father was of half Irish and half German descent. His great-grandfather August Schuckman,

9592-410: The malathion may not have been very toxic to humans, the aerosol spray containing it was corrosive to car paint. Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that was indeed eventually adopted. In 1979, an out-of-state columnist, Mike Royko , at

9701-471: The money raised ratio" was by far the best of any candidate's in the race. He had a sizable number of delegates, and a big win in his home state of California would have deprived Clinton of sufficient support to win the Democratic nomination, possibly bringing about a brokered convention . After nearly a month of intense campaigning and multiple debates between the two candidates, Clinton managed to defeat Brown in this final primary, 48% to 41%. Brown did not win

9810-399: The nomination, but was able to boast of one accomplishment: at the following month's Democratic National Convention , he received the votes of 596 delegates on the first ballot, more than any other candidate but Clinton. He spoke at the convention, and to the national viewing audience, yet without endorsing Clinton, through the device of seconding his own nomination. There was animosity between

9919-578: The novitiate from August 1956 to January 1960 before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley , where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in classics in 1961. With his tuition paid for by the Louis Lurie Foundation, including a $ 675 scholarship in 1963, Brown went on to Yale Law School and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1964. After law school, Brown worked as a law clerk for California Supreme Court justice Mathew Tobriner . Returning to California, Brown took

10028-536: The office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office." Some legal analysts called the lawsuit frivolous because Brown was admitted to practice law in the State of California on June 14, 1965, and had been so admitted to practice ever since. Although ineligible to practice law because of his voluntary inactive status in

10137-440: The party's donor base and enlarged its coffers, with a focus on grassroots organizing and get out the vote drives, he was criticized for not spending enough money on TV ads, which was felt to have contributed to Democratic losses in several close races in 1990, such as Dianne Feinstein 's attempt to become the first female governor of California . In early 1991, Brown abruptly resigned his post and announced that he would run for

10246-567: The race. A week later, he cemented his position as a major threat to Clinton when he eked out a narrow win in the bitterly fought Connecticut primary. As the press focused on the primaries in New York and Wisconsin , which were held on the same day, Brown, who had taken the lead in polls in both states, made a gaffe : he announced to an audience of various leaders of New York City's Jewish community that, if nominated, he would consider Jesse Jackson as his running mate. Jackson, who had made

10355-592: The recent House banking scandal and the large congressional pay raises of 1990, he promised to put an end to Congress being a " Stop-and-Shop for the moneyed special interests ". As Brown campaigned in various primary states, he expanded his platform beyond a policy of strict campaign finance reform . Although he focused on a variety of issues during the campaign, he highlighted his endorsement of living wage laws and opposition to free trade agreements such as NAFTA ; he mostly concentrated on his tax policy, which had been created specifically for him by Arthur Laffer ,

10464-611: The right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business" is enshrined in Article 1 of the California Constitution due to California Proposition 59 (the Sunshine Amendment, 2004). When the legislature enacted CPRA, it expressly declared that "access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state." Indeed, in California "access to government records has been deemed

10573-616: The schools, and his reform efforts were "largely a bust". He focused instead on the creation of two charter schools , the Oakland School for the Arts and the Oakland Military Institute . Defending his support of a military charter school in Oakland, Brown once told KQED reporter Stephen Talbot, "I believe that had I been sent to the military academy, as my mother and father threatened, I would have been president

10682-556: The spraying. After more than a month, millions of dollars of crops had been destroyed, and billions of dollars more were threatened. Governor Brown then authorized a massive response to the infestation. Fleets of helicopters sprayed malathion at night, and the California National Guard set up highway checkpoints and collected many tons of local fruit; in the final stage of the campaign, entomologists released millions of sterile male medflies in an attempt to disrupt

10791-475: The state bar exam and passed on his second attempt. He then settled in Los Angeles and joined the law firm of Tuttle & Taylor. In 1969, Brown ran for the newly created Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, which oversaw community colleges in the city; he placed first in a field of 124 and served until 1971. In 1970, Brown was elected California secretary of state . Brown argued before

10900-403: The suburb of Carmichael and instead renting a $ 275-per-month apartment at 1228 N Street, adjacent to Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento. Rather than riding as a passenger in a chauffeured limousine as previous governors had done, Brown walked to work and drove in a Plymouth Satellite sedan . When Gray Davis , who was chief of staff to Governor Brown, suggested that a hole in the rug in

11009-406: The two annotated codes. Libraries that lack sufficient shelf space to carry both codes—usually because they are small law libraries, public libraries serving the general public (as distinguished from public law libraries), or out-of-state libraries—usually carry only West and omit Deering's . There are also a handful of relatively minor statutes which were never codified and are not included in

11118-487: The very wealthy proved popular with voters. Various opinion polls at the time found that as many as three-quarters of Americans believed the current tax code was biased toward the wealthy. Jesse Walker wrote in The American Conservative that he "seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man in the field ... [calling] for term limits, a flat tax, reforming social security, and the abolition of

11227-521: The vote in the New Hampshire primary , and he was soon forced to announce that his decision to remain in the race would depend on a good showing in the Wisconsin primary. Although he had polled well there throughout the primary season, an attempt to film a live speech in Madison , the state's capital, into a special effects -filled, 30-minute commercial (produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola )

11336-402: Was disastrous. In 1982 , Brown chose not to seek a third term as governor; instead, he ran for the United States Senate for the seat being vacated by Republican S. I. Hayakawa . He was defeated by Republican San Diego mayor Pete Wilson by a margin of 52% to 45%. After his Senate defeat, Brown was left with few political options. Republican George Deukmejian , a Brown critic, narrowly won

11445-470: Was elected to serve as the 23rd secretary of state of California from 1971 to 1975. At 36, Brown was elected to his first term as governor in 1974 , making him the youngest California governor in 111 years. In 1978 , he won his second term. During his governorship, Brown ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980 . He declined to pursue a third term as governor in 1982 , instead making an unsuccessful run for

11554-549: Was modeled after the California Codes. Thus, Guam courts look to California case law to assist them with interpretation of the Code of Guam. In 1868, the California Legislature authorized the first of many ad hoc Code Commissions to begin the process of codifying California law. Each Code Commission was a one- or two-year temporary agency which either closed at the end of the authorized period or

11663-589: Was not as bad as Biafra thought he would be, and subsequent songs have been written about other politicians deemed worse. Brown chose not to run for a third term in 1982, and instead ran for the United States Senate , but lost to San Diego mayor Pete Wilson . He was succeeded as governor by George Deukmejian , then state attorney general, on January 3, 1983. In 1980, Brown challenged Carter for renomination. The press had anticipated his candidacy ever since he won re-election as governor in 1978 over

11772-605: Was rapidly losing residents and businesses, and Brown is credited with starting the revitalization of the city using his connections and experience to lessen the economic downturn while attracting $ 1 billion of investments, including refurbishing the Fox Theatre , the Port of Oakland , and Jack London Square . The downtown district was losing retailers, restaurateurs and residential developers, and Brown sought to attract thousands of new residents with disposable income to revitalize

11881-498: Was reauthorized and rolled over into the next period; thus, in some years there was no Code Commission. The first four codes enacted in 1872 were the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Penal Code, and the Political Code. Statutes that did not fit these categories were simply left uncodified in the California Statutes . The four original California Codes were not drafted from scratch, but were mostly adapted by

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