Last year, Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco successfully pushed two pieces of legislation limiting state transparency. Now the Downey Democrat has another bill that would make obtaining government records harder for the public.
As CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu explains, Pacheco’s latest proposal would allow public agencies to charge an unspecified, uncapped fee to fulfill a public records request if it takes a government worker more than two hours to search for documents. Agencies could also charge a fee if workers spend more than 10 hours within a month looking for records requested by the same person. Journalists and educational or scientific institutions would be exempt from the fees.
- Pacheco, in a statement: “This bill is intended to address a narrow set of high-cost, resource-intensive requests that can delay agencies’ ability to respond to other records requests.”
Pacheco cited examples demonstrating how time-consuming fulfilling records requests can be, including one person who submitted more than 100 requests in Fontana with the stated goal of disrupting city operations. The effort cost more than $300,000.
But in 2020 the California Supreme Court issued a ruling saying that governments cannot charge for the search and redaction of public records because it would threaten Californians’ right to access.
In 2025, California lawmakers also passed two bills that made it easier for agencies to redact police misconduct records and allow more public officials to withhold personally identifying information — both were authored by Pacheco.
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Sheriff insists seizing hundreds of thousands of ballots is normal
A defiant Chad Bianco — the Riverside County Sheriff who last month seized over 650,000 voting ballots from the county’s registrar of voters — denies any wrongdoing in his effort to recount votes for Proposition 50.
In an interview with CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang, Bianco said his recount efforts are unrelated to his bid for governor, which he is currently leading along with fellow Republican Steve Hilton.
- Bianco: “You all are making it political. We are doing the same thing we do every single day, and I’m not going to justify it to people that have no idea. … This is normal law enforcement.”
Bianco began probing the November 2025 special election after a local elections-related activist group accused election officials of inflating the number of ballots counted. But voter fraud is exceedingly rare in California and the country, and even Bianco said he has “not found any mass fraud in Riverside County in elections.”
Do your taxes carefully if you want to run for governor
Stella also reports how a dispute between a Green Party member and the California Secretary of State is renewing scrutiny over a state law requiring gubernatorial candidates to file tax returns.
On Thursday a Sacramento judge struck down a lawsuit by Rudolph “Butch” Ware, a UC Santa Barbara associate professor who is trying to run for governor under the Green Party. Ware claims that Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office unfairly disqualified him for seeking a spot on the June primary ballot despite filing the necessary tax documents.
But Weber’s office argues that Ware’s paperwork contained multiple inconsistencies. The judge sided with Weber, and said the office demonstrated an attempt to work with Ware to correct his filings.
Ware is also calling into question the 2019 state law requiring candidates to submit tax returns to qualify for the ballot, arguing that the California Constitution alone establishes the qualifications for office, not the Legislature.
And lastly: Farmworks Day official
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Thursday a bill renaming César Chávez Day to Farmworkers Day. The California Legislature acted quickly to rename the March 31 holiday after The New York Times found that the labor leader sexually abused young girls beginning in the 1960s. Read more from CalMatters’ Nadia Lathan.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: Newsom wants to spend $19 million on a marketing campaign to portray California as having a vibrant economy, despite the fact that the state’s economy isn’t doing so well these days.
The Networking California for Sickle Cell Care has helped more than 1,200 patients access preventive care, manage complications and avoid sickle cell crises — but it needs sustained investment from the state in order to continue, writes Mary E. Brown, president and CEO of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation.
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