A transparency bill that has cleared both houses of the State Legislature is expected to have little effect on auxiliary organizations such as Associated Students Inc., said Richard Haller, executive director of ASI, but the student government organization has taken to implement the legislation.
Senate Bill 8, written by Sen. Leland Yee (D- San Francisco) will apply legislation similar to the California Public Records Act to auxiliary organizations such as ASI and 49er Shops.
The California Public Records Act mandates public disclosure of governmental records upon request. However, under SB 8 anonymity of auxiliary organization donors and volunteers will be protected unless they receive compensation from the university valued over $2,500.
Haller said adoption of the legislation would have little effect on ASI because the auxiliary organization already operates transparently.
Haller also said that ASI officials will draft formal procedure for handling public records requests and that training for implementing this procedure is scheduled for Sept. 22.
“We will need to determine which of the records fall under the provisions of the new law,” he added.
Along with drafting procedure and training, ASI will utilize OrgSync, a recently purchased social media platform for student organizations, to release some records, ASI President Lucy Nguyen said.
“It has always been a priority of CSULB and ASI to make all information public, and [this will] especially [be the case] now that OrgSync is set to be launched,” Nguyen said.
The bill was originally introduced as SB 218 in Feb. 2009 and then later introduced as a similar bill, SB 330, in Feb. 2010. At that time the bills were vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because he felt the bill inappropriately defined private auxiliary organizations as public entities.
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