When individuals, or a small group of folks, decide to start their own lobbying firm they are likely to face many of the same issues faced by many other small businesses and owners starting a business in California as well as some issues specific to the lobbying industry.
There are several questions to think
Today we’ll take a look at providing effective committee testimony to the California Legislature. Here are a couple of points to keep in mind.
California’s Constitution in Article IV, Section 7, deals primarily with the proceedings of the houses and committees of the California Legislature. For example, in Section 7c, “The proceedings of each house and the committees thereof shall be open and public.” Moreover, in that section, “The right to attend open and public proceedings includes the
Per Article II, Section 8(d) of the California Constitution, “An initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to the electors or have any effect.” Essentially, if an initiative embraces more than one subject, it can neither be submitted to, nor enacted by, the voters.
You may recall that a similar
There are several code sections that set forth legislative powers and duties. These statutes were added by Prop 24 in 1984 and are found in Title 2, Division 2, Part 1, Chapter 8, Article II of California’s Government Code.
Government Code section 9910 states that the Speaker is responsible for the efficient conduct of
An area that is rarely talked about in California’s capitol community concerns the infrequent lobbying of bill referrals. In other words, how does someone get a bill referred to a favorable committee, or perhaps an unfavorable committee, or even to multiple committees?
In most instances, the policy committee to which a bill will be
On occasion, I’ve been asked whether there’s any recourse if the Legislature and Governor enact a law that somehow violated the state and/or federal constitutions. Obviously, the first action would be to challenge the enacted bill in either a state or federal court, depending on the basis for that constitutional challenge. Another avenue is
Although California’s constitution provides for the amendment of the state constitution, it does not actually define the term. California’s Legislative Counsel defines a constitutional amendment as a resolution proposing a change to the California Constitution. It may be presented by the Legislature or by initiative, and it’s adopted upon voter approval at a state‑wide
In California’s Government Code there are a number of sections of law that prohibit specified political activities of public employees.
Government Code section 3201 specifies that the Legislature makes a finding that political activities of public employees are of significant statewide concern and that the provisions of this section of the law supersede all
What does “separation of powers” mean in the state of California? Similar to the federal government, it essentially means that the powers of government are provided to separate branches of government to operate.
These powers are set forth in the California Constitution and are granted to the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and