By Ashley Zavala
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —A new proposal in California would prohibit the governor and top officials in the administration from signing or requesting anyone to sign non-disclosure agreements when creating new state laws and determining how to use taxpayer dollars.
Non-disclosure agreements are contracts that legally force people to keep information a secret. The bill is in direct response to KCRA 3's reporting on how California's government has either used them or allowed groups to use them on the taxpayers' dime.
Assemblyman Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, filed the proposal Wednesday. His Assembly Bill 1652 aims to make their use a crime for the California governor and his administration, similar to a new law, which Patterson also wrote, that made it a crime for state lawmakers.
"This bill is an essential step in increasing transparency throughout California's government," Patterson said. "Especially the administration, they are involved in the negotiations for every major piece of legislation that passes out of California."
In response to the bill, Gov. Newsom's spokesman Izzy Gardon said the governor does not typically comment on pending legislation.
"As you well know, our office doesn’t sign NDAs for legislation, so this wouldn’t change anything for us," Gardon said.
KCRA 3 first reported in 2024 that state lawmakers and other key voices were entirely left out of the negotiations of California's fast-food minimum wage law, which raised pay to $20 an hour for fast-food workers across the state but provided a mysterious exemption for bakeries that sell and bake their own bread.
Newsom's office oversaw the negotiations and allowed NDAs to cover the secret talks at the insistence of a major labor organization, SEIU California. Newsom's office has said neither the governor nor his staff signed them. Since then, no one has been able to explain the bakery exemption, but multiple sources have told KCRA 3 it was for one of the governor's billionaire donors, who is also a Panera franchisee.
Harsh Ghai, one of the largest operators of Burger King restaurants in the country, told KCRA 3 he was left in the dark about the law because of the use of NDAs. Joseph Bryant, an SEIU official who is also a member of California's Fast-Food Council, which is meant to set the wages and working conditions for the workers across the state, would not confirm or deny that he signed the NDA.
KCRA 3 was also the first to report the government's use of NDAs in the California Legislature’s construction of a new $1 billion and counting office building for state lawmakers and the governor. The Legislature directed 2,000 people, including five state lawmakers and dozens of people in the governor's administration, to sign NDAs to keep broad information about the Capitol Annex project secret.
It has been years since project leaders provided taxpayers with an update on the estimated cost of the project.
Patterson told KCRA 3 he's hopeful that because lawmakers approved the ban for themselves last year, they'll approve the ban for the governor and other state officials this year.
"It is vital that every branch of government functions to help Californians, not hide information from residents," Patterson said. "Californians have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent."
