Three great laws from California

It is good that Rep. John Moss, D-Sacramento, is remembered for his authorship of the federal Freedom of Information Act, passed in 1966, in an interview with his biographer, Michael Lemov.
The article reminds us of two great California State Legislature laws governing public access to government meetings and information pertaining to state government only.

Ralph M. Brown Act, 1953, describes its purpose and intent:

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

California Public Records Act, 1968

6250. In enacting this chapter, the Legislature, mindful of the right of individuals to privacy, finds and declares that access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state.

Badlands Journal editorial board
5-29-11
Fresno Bee
Biography tells of Sacramento congressman who led a right-to-know revolution…Michael Doyle - mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/29/v-print/2406593/biography-tells-of-sacramento.html
WASHINGTON – The late Sacramento congressman John Moss led a right-to-know revolution whose contours he never could have imagined.
Now, this one-time appliance salesman and unlikely author of the Freedom of Information Act is the subject of a new biography. Penned by a former staffer and published by a university press, the book mirrors the life of an admirable if sometimes stodgy lawmaker.
"I think Moss accomplished so much in his life," said author Michael R. Lemov, "and yet he's almost forgotten now."
Titled "People's Warrior," Lemov's book sketches Moss' early travails, which included a mother who died when he was 12, an alcoholic father who abandoned the family and a prematurely ended Sacramento Junior College education.
The book also conveys the formality of a public figure whom – even now – the 76-year-old Lemov still periodically refers to as Mr. Moss.
"I never called him John," Lemov said. "Maybe 'Mr. Chairman,' once in a while."
But mostly, policy and legislative politics dominate the 237-page book set for a July 1 release.
Two signal accomplishments stand out.
In 1966, after more than a decade of laying the groundwork, Moss muscled the Freedom of Information Act across the finish line. It's made a difference. Last year, Moss' law was used in 597,415 separate FOIA requests filed with federal agencies.
Moss' freedom-of-information law and the numerous state laws it inspired are now taken for granted. But back when Moss was first getting started, Lemov's book underscores the omnipresence of government secrecy and the resistance the reformer faced.
The Department of the Navy held tight to its telephone directory. The Postmaster General would not divulge public employee salaries. FBI files, such as those now available on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Anna Nicole Smith and Moss himself, were kept locked up – essentially forever.
The executive branch liked to keep the lid on, whichever party was in power.
"I thought Moss was one of our boys," Lemov quotes President Lyndon B. Johnson as saying in the mid-1960s. "But the Justice Department tells me this … bill will screw the Johnson administration."
Johnson ultimately signed the bill, without bothering to invite Moss to the signing ceremony.
In 1972, Moss followed up his FOIA success by passing the Consumer Product Safety Act over industry opposition. In the three decades since the law established the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the rate of reported deaths and injuries tied to consumer products has fallen by a third.
"He took on every big interest," Lemov said. "Moss was lined up against half of the industries in the country. He had tremendous odds against him."
Lemov knows this Capitol Hill territory. The Colgate University and Harvard Law School graduate formerly served as chief counsel to Moss, whom he helped write the groundbreaking consumer protection law.
Perhaps as a result, Lemov's book spends even more time on the consumer protection fights than on the Freedom of Information Act campaign that began when Moss secured chairmanship of a special subcommittee in 1955. Parochial Sacramento Valley politics and the re-elections that kept Moss representing the 3rd Congressional District until his 1978 retirement get little attention.
"John was really the father of oversight," said Rep. Doris Matsui, who now holds Moss' old House seat. "He was not the type of person who did a lot of schmoozing … (but) he was sort of ahead of the game, in thinking about (government oversight) before others did."
For a long time, Lemov feared his manuscript might never see the light of day. But after rejections by the University of California and others, he landed a contract with Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
"It's been a labor of love," Lemov said.