Schwarzenegger, Calif. legislative leaders refuse to disclose lawmakers at private lunch

Schwarzenegger refuses to disclose lunch guests

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office and leaders of the state Legislature refused Thursday to share the names of lawmakers who lunched with the governor a day earlier after he delivered his State of the State address.

Legal experts said the information is central to determining whether state open meeting laws were violated when the public and reporters were shut out of the private lunch.

Schwarzenegger invited all 120 members of the Assembly and Senate to the steak-or-salmon lunch at the private Sutter Club near the state Capitol. The governor’s senior staff, political consultants and lobbyists also attended.

Some lawmakers who attended said the gathering was not subject to open meeting laws because it was a social affair.

“The problem is that it’s inconceivable, in a gathering of that size between the Legislature and the governor immediately following his State of the State address, that official business wasn’t being done,” said Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, a San Rafael-based nonprofit that advocates for free speech and eliminating unnecessary government secrecy.

“They didn’t only talk about the presents they got at Christmas or the vacation they returned from. You can be absolutely sure of that,” he said.

Under California law, meetings in which “legislative or other official matters” of the 80-member Assembly or 40-member Senate are discussed must be public when a majority of either chamber is present. There is no specific exemption for social functions.

The public also must be given notice when those meetings are to be held.

Whether a quorum of lawmakers gathered at the lunch remains undetermined. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said roughly 70 lawmakers — a majority of the total Assembly and Senate membership — attended, but he said he could not provide their names.

“There’s no comprehensive list that exists of the people who were there,” McLear said.

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

Representatives for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, could not say how many of their members were there.

“We did not keep a roll call of members in attendance to the lunch simply because it was a lunch. No business was discussed,” said Tony Beard Jr., the sergeant-at-arms for the Senate. “It did not violate any rules or laws in that context.”

Ronald Pane, sergeant-at-arms for the Assembly, did not return a call seeking comment.

On Thursday, The Associated Press filed public records requests with the governor’s office and Legislature seeking the names of the attendees.

At least one lawmaker said it would be difficult to know whether state law was violated during the lunch because it was closed to the public.

“Just because you have a quorum does not necessarily mean the open meeting laws have been violated,” said Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco who did not attend the lunch. “It’s what happens inside, and the only way you know what happens inside is if the press is invited.”

Scheer said holding a private meeting in violation of state law is a misdemeanor and that anyone who attends would be in violation.

An Associated Press reporter who tried to get inside the lunch was turned away by California Highway Patrol officers who guard the governor. They said the event was private.

Schwarzenegger’s invitation to lawmakers suggested that the business of state government would be a central discussion point. It reads: “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.”

Schwarzenegger’s office said the governor paid for the lunch himself.

Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Steinberg, said the administration assured lawmakers the evening before the lunch that no legislative business would be discussed.

“In the event business came up, the pro tem would have ensured (that) members would have vacated the premises,” Trost said.

One lawmaker who attended, Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Hesperia, said he talked with fellow lawmakers about their families, the holidays and their future plans.