Commentary: Brown should veto bill that penalizes Costa Mesa for transparency

With the impending stroke of his pen, Gov. Jerry Brown could potentially mete out one of the biggest and most cynical acts of revenge against taxpayers by signing into law the Civic Reporting Openness in Negotiations Efficiency act, or CRONE for short.

Considering this bill was brought to the fore by the labor union cronies of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, that CRONE acronym fits the bill just perfectly. Let’s hope the governor sees this for the farce that it is.

Meanwhile, let me provide a little history here for context. In 2012, the city of Costa Mesa, of which I am the mayor, enacted what we call the Civic Openness in Negotiations ordinance, or COIN.

The ordinance has one simple requirement: that labor negotiations to take place in full view of the public, instead of the usual practice of closed-door sessions.

The ordinance has been a huge success and a win for taxpayers concerned about out-of-control spending. The city of Costa Mesa won several awards for transparency in government and at least five other municipalities, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Beverly Hills, the County of Orange and the East Bay Municipal Utilities District, have followed suit.

The main result is that the taxpaying public, for whom all government employees work, is fully informed how their dollars are being spent. What is wrong with that?

Indeed, the Los Angeles Times editorial board, not exactly known for its conservative leanings, said this of COIN as it urged the Los Angeles City Council to adopt it:

“The public deserves a transparent discussion and accounting of labor deals … Los Angeles leaders have a history of rushed votes, insufficient analysis and little debate over labor contracts that can have major impacts on the city’s budget and services.”

So in response to calls for transparency, the Democrats in Sacramento, led by Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Whittier), and his union cronies, took the opposite approach.

Instead, they concocted a bill that penalizes only Costa Mesa and those other five aforementioned municipalities, imposing cumbersome new regulations and burdens designed to discourage open government and public discourse.

The bill, which laughably has the name efficiency in it, would create the following roadblocks for local governments who negotiate and approve contracts with private companies valued at $250,000 or more for goods or services:

• It would force municipal governments to hire an independent auditor to review the cost of any proposed contract.

• It will require cities to unnecessarily prepare and present reports on the costs of every contract.

• It will put in place a minimum 60-day timeline before any contract can be approved, with any proposed contract changes restarting the 60-day timeline.

• It will require governments to disclose all offers and counter-offers on the local government’s website within 24 hours.

• Finally, cities with COIN laws will need to release a comprehensive list of names of all persons in attendance, whether in person or by electronic means, during any negotiation session regarding the contract, the date of the session, the length of the session, the location where the session took place, and any pertinent facts regarding the negotiations that occurred in that session.

This is nothing short of legislative vindictiveness aimed at stifling open government, and in some cases the law will grind government to a halt, as no contract will get approved, period.

How does this help anyone? Jobs will be stopped, and economic activity will stall.

Further, it’s shocking that the governor and the state Legislature would use their valuable time and take taxpayers’ money to single out six government entities that simply want to hold negotiations in an open and transparent manner.

If the Legislature was really concerned about good government, why did it selectively single out Costa Mesa and the other government agencies?

We’ve long known that the politicians in Sacramento have little regard for the hard-working middle class in California, whose taxpayers fund the government.

But if this bill becomes law, I can only hope that anyone who didn’t believe that Sacramento politicians have nothing but disdain for the hard-working people will quickly change their mind — and by extension march to the ballot box and change and replace their state Legislature with someone who believes in transparency and open government and protecting the taxpayers.

STEPHEN MENSINGER is the mayor of Costa Mesa.