On Sept. 9, the California State Senate approved legislation on a 33-1 vote to create more transparency in organizations within California’s public universities and colleges.

Californians Aware and California Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, are pushing for SB 218 to be signed by the governor, which would require auxiliary organizations, such as Sacramento State’s University Enterprises, Inc., to comply with the California Public Records Act.

“The courts have ruled that auxiliary organizations do not adhere to the CPRA despite the fact that their work historically has been handled within administration,” said Adam Keigwin, Sen. Yee’s chief of staff. “Taxpayers and students deserve to know what is going on.”

The CPRA states that public records are open to inspection at all times during the office hours of the state or local agency.

Under the current law, the Hornet Bookstore, run by UEI, is exempt from the CPRA, meaning that it can deny public record requests from the general public regarding documents. If the governor signs SB 218, students will be able to see documents that would tell things like price markups on textbooks.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto the bill.

“The bill furthers the state’s mission in providing transparency,” said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for California Newspaper Publishers Association, which co-sponsors SB 218.

Keigwin said another reason why organizations are supporting this bill is because there have been numerous incidents and scandals within auxiliary organizations throughout the state.

“We can only imagine what’s happening if we actually were able to review their books and see what is really going on,” Keigwin said.

A more publicized case was CSU vs. Superior Court in 2001, when the Fresno Bee was denied information from a Fresno State auxiliary organization regarding donors receiving luxury box suites at Fresno State’s Save Mart Center arena.

The court ruled that the organization had the legal right to deny the Fresno Bee’s request.

Terry Francke, legal counsel for Californians Aware, said, “There have been a string of scandals coming to light since this bill was introduced. The public ought to be able to find out how the university campuses are spending public funds and it ought to be able to apply that same transparency to the foundations that are raising extra money for the universities.”

UEI’s Marketing Service Director Celexsy Adame responded through an e-mail on behalf of UEI to say that it does not have a position on either SB 218 or public records law.

The email also said that UEI is an auxiliary organization and is not funded by state general fund money.

The CSU, UC and the chancellor of the community colleges said the it would discourage donors from making donations to the schools because it will make nonprofit organizations more public.

The CSU, UC and community colleges stated in the bill analysis that SB 218 will lead to multimillion-dollar revenue losses due to reduced donations from anonymous donors specifically and diminish donations to the auxiliaries in general.

However, Ewert said there are provisions that protect the identities of anonymous donors to the extent that they do not receive anything in exchange.

The donors who do not wish to be anonymous are able to see and keep track of how their money is handled by making all auxiliary organizations’ records public, he said.

CSU also stated its concerns in the bill analysis. CSU stated its concerns that by expanding CPRA to private entities, CSU’s ability to receive donations, attract volunteers, participate in public-private partnerships and contract with vendors will be hindered because of those who fear access to their personal and proprietary information.

Miyu Kataoka can be reached at [email protected].