By Ashley Zavala
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised to push state lawmakers leading the California Capitol Annex project to be more transparent about how they're using taxpayer dollars.
Documents show Newsom's office plays a larger role in the project than the governor suggested earlier this week.
It has been at least three years since project leaders in the California Legislature provided an update on the estimated cost of the taxpayer funded office building that will be used by the governor and state lawmakers. At last check, it was expected to cost more than $1.1 billion.
Project leaders, also known as the Joint Rules Committee, have not been forthcoming with information about how they're spending the funds; only confirming information that is leaked to KCRA 3, including millions spent on Italian stonework, and the decision to add a hallway system that only lawmakers can use to avoid the public and media. The Legislature also continues to withhold documents that KCRA 3 has requested, which could shed light on how much the project is costing.
"As a taxpayer, I'd like to know as well," Newsom told KCRA 3 at a news conference Tuesday when pressed about the Legislature's handling of the project and lack of information.
Documents provided to KCRA 3 show Newsom's director of operations has been part of a three-member executive committee that is expected to meet regularly and vote on final decisions about the project behind closed doors. The committee includes Newsom's current Director of Operations Miroslava de la O, Democratic Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco and Democratic State Sen. John Laird.
A 2018 memorandum of understanding between the Legislature and governor's office established the committee to ensure the legislature keeps the governor's office in the loop on the project. While the legislature's Joint Rules Committee does the bulk of the decision making, the agreement lays out ways in which the governor's office is involved. The memo includes the expectations for the committee, stating it should meet as needed, with a monthly standing meeting that can be "more frequent or cancelled as necessary."
The memo also states major changes to project scope, schedules, budgets and delivery methods made by the committee shall be subject to a majority vote. The memo has allowed everything the committee does to be kept confidential. The agreement was established before Newsom took office.
All three members of the committee have signed nondisclosure agreements that the Legislature has required since 2018 from people involved in the project in order to keep broad information about it confidential, which KCRA 3 first reported last fall. With the NDAs in place, the project price tag swelled from $558.2 million to more than $1 billion.
Documents provided to KCRA 3 through a Legislative Open Records Act request this year show de la O recently signed the nondisclosure agreement. Prior to de la O, Erin Suhr served in the executive committee role representing the governor. Suhr also signed the NDA.
It's not clear when the committee last met. A spokesperson for the Legislature's Joint Rules Committee could not say immediately when asked on Wednesday. KCRA 3 has filed a public records act request for meeting information between 2018 and now.
"The Executive Committee was designed to ensure collaboration and transparency despite your claims of secrecy," a spokesperson for the Joint Rules Committee said in part in a statement to KCRA 3 on Wednesday.
"Consistent with the MOU, the Governor’s office staff is not involved in day-to-day operations or management of the project," said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom
Gallegos said the Governor’s Office Director of Operations is on the committee to approve only major design changes and budget changes related to the design and security of the project related to the impacts of the physical governor's office in the new building. She noted the de la O is not approving change orders and does not get an itemized list of project budget items. She said that information is provided by the Joint Rules Committee.
When asked if the governor has no idea how much the building is now estimated to cost, Gallegos referred KCRA 3 back to his comments during Tuesday's press conference.
KCRA 3 asked the governor's office if the NDA kept de la O from sharing information with the governor.
"Our office’s role on the committee is limited to reviewing significant scope changes as defined in the MOU, which have not been presented to the committee at this time, as well as reviewing security concerns. We are not privy to detailed financial information beyond what is addressed by the committee. The NDA does not prevent the Governor’s staff from briefing him on actions taken by the committee and limited information received in this function," Gallegos said.
"Those three people make key decisions on the Capitol. More importantly, they made those decisions privately and do not have to disclose those to the public," said Luree Stetson, a member of the Public Accountability For Our Capitol Political Action Committee.
When asked if she's convinced the governor does not know how much the building costs Stetson said, "I don't know if the governor would or not. His staff might. Whether his staff informed him of that, we've tried to get in touch with the governor over the last five years also and never heard back from him."
Newsom will likely never use the 525,000-square-foot building as governor, which is expected to be complete in 2027 after he's termed out of office.
Newsom has approved legislation appropriating funds for the project. He also signed a bill in 2024 that exempted the new building from California's Environmental Quality Act to cease the litigation that had been stalling it.
The last public update on the project was in a hearing in April of 2021. The California Legislature's Joint Rules Committee said it planned to provide an update this year, but that never happened before state lawmakers left Sacramento for the rest of the year in September.
