Assembly Leader Pat Hickey announced on Monday that he will be submitting a bill in the next Legislature to require “interim” legislative committees to follow the state’s open meeting law, but not the regular Legislature itself. He said in a press release that it would be hard for the regular Legislature to follow the law “because of the 120-day time limit.”
Not really.
Perhaps Assemblyman Hickey might consider submitting a different bill that would require that ALL bills be posted on the Internet for public review a full 72-hours before voting on it. If legislators don’t get the bill heard in time before the end of the session…oh, well. No more “slam and jam” at the 11th hour.
Indeed, such a law would force legislators to (a) stop introducing so many frivolous bills in the first place, and (b) stop wasting so much valuable time in the beginning of the session passing resolutions such as the designation of an official state bug and National Indoor Toxic Mold Awareness Month (thank you ever so much Assemblyman Lynn Stewart!).
