Schwarzenegger invites lawmakers to closed-door lunch, questions are raised about legality

CA governor’s invite to lawmakers draws scrutiny

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday invited California lawmakers to lunch after his State of the State address, but his office was refusing to allow the public to attend.

Legal experts said the meeting constitutes a violation of state law if a quorum of the 120-member Legislature is present and business is discussed.

Schwarzenegger invited all members of the Assembly and Senate to lunch at the private Sutter Club near the state Capitol.

“We can accomplish great things together over the next year, and I want to get that important work started off with a bang,” he said in the invitation sent to lawmakers.

“I plan to lay out some bold ideas for helping our great state through this troubled time and building an even brighter future, and I don’t doubt that we will have plenty to talk about.”

An Associated Press reporter who showed up and asked to be admitted was turned away by a California Highway Patrol detail that guards the governor. The officers said the affair was private.

The governor’s spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the gathering was a social function and not subject to California’s Brown Act open meetings laws. He said the Republican governor was paying for the lunch himself.

“They’re not talking business,” McLear said. “This is not an official meeting or a hearing or anything. It’s a social gathering for the governor to start the year off right with the Legislature.”

The Legislature is subject to a weaker version of California’s open-meetings law than local or other state bodies. But it would be hard to argue that the highest legislative body in the state should not follow the same rules as a city council or a school board, said Terry Francke, legislative counsel for the nonprofit First Amendment group Californians Aware.

“The Brown Act does exclude what it calls purely social occasions, but I think it’s an insult to the intelligence of the public to ask them to believe that any presentation by a governor to a Legislature is purely social,” Francke said. “I’m surprised that they really have the gall to expect that to be taken seriously.”

The lunch was taking place shortly after the governor addressed lawmakers for his final State of the State address. In it, he laid out plans to deal with California’s projected $20 billion deficit and said he will push for long-term reforms on such issues as budgeting, the tax system and public pensions.

All four legislative leaders — the top Democrats and Republicans of the Assembly and Senate — attended the lunch.

Before the event, the AP asked Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, whether he had concerns about the lunch violating state law.

“We don’t know,” he responded. “We’re just invitees.”