Today’s podcast covers a list of resources that my colleague, Ray LeBov, and I have put together. You can find a full list of these on Ray’s website.
https://soundcloud.com/capimpactca/resources-for-governmental-advocates
What are some of the resources we cover on Ray’s site? For one, The Institute of Governmental Advocates is a voluntary non-profit professional membership association for California lobbyists and lobbying firms. IGA maintains a professional code of conduct for their advocates that you can find on the IGA website.
The Fair Political Practices Commission is the state agency that defines and regulates the lobbying process and those engaged in the practice of advocacy in accordance with the Political Reform Act which was implemented by the Legislature. Familiarity with FPPC rules is a must for governmental advocates. The FPPC even maintains a toll-free advice line and any advice provided by the FPPC is considered official and binding.
There are a number of key publications and directories including Capitol Inquiry, which produces the pocket directory of the California Legislature, the California Legislature Staff Index, the California State Agency Directory, the California City and County Directory, the US Congress Directory, as well as electoral maps, profiles, and the California Judicial Leaders Directory. There’s also California Political Maps which publishes a glossy two-sided wall poster of Senate and Assembly districts. There’s a complete list of legislative publications on the Legislative Counsel website. California Budget Center publishes Dollars and Democracy which is a guide to the state budget process.
The Senate offers two wonderful publications, The Legislative Process – A Citizen’s Guide to Participation as well as The Budget Process, also called A Citizen’s Guide to Participation. On the Department of Finance website, you can find a brief overview of the legislative process as well as one on leginfo. The Office of Administrative Law has an overview of the rulemaking process as while as a two dozen page guide book, titled Guide to Public Participation in the Rulemaking Process. They also published the rulemaking law calendar and the California Regulatory Notice Register.
And lastly, the following are some of the selected political news websites including Around The Capitol, Calbuzz, Capitol Alert by the Sacramento Bee, Capitol Morning Report, Capitol Weekly, and Rough and Tumble.