SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Regional centers in California could soon have to provide public records under a bill sitting on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk.
Spread throughout the state, these 21 centers provide important services to hundreds of thousands of people with developmental disabilities including adult day care, transportation, housing, medical and mental health services, and more.
Regional centers have been a main focus of ABC10's ongoing investigative reporting, The Price of Care: Taken by the State. The investigation into the state's conservatorship system for those with developmental disabilities has been credited for the passage of new laws and reform measures on both a state and federal level.
Next year, records show California's regional centers are expected to spend $15 billion in taxpayer dollars, yet how the money is being spent often remains in the dark because regional centers do not have to answer to California's Public Records Act.
"Regional centers, when they were founded over 50 years ago, were established as independent nonprofit agencies with community control and therefore were not considered government," said Disability Voices United President Judy Mark. "But over the 50 years that they've been around, they have started acting like government agencies."
Regional centers operate under California's Department of Developmental Services (DDS). The state agency funds the centers with taxpayer dollars to execute their mission in providing services to hundreds of thousands of Californians with developmental disabilities.
"So what we need to see is them being treated as such (government agencies)," said Mark.
Enter AB 1147. The bill sponsored by California Assemblymembers Dawn Addis, Eduardo Garcia and Devon Mathis aims to increase regional centers' transparency and accountability by making them susceptible to public records act requests.
Public officials often promise transparency, but fail to deliver, which is why the state's public records laws are vital. California's constitution and public records act (PRA) are designed to allow any member of the public to inspect government records including contracts, budgets, policies, emails and more.
However, as nonprofits, regional centers are exempt. It's a big problem, Mark says.
"I would like to know whether these (regional center) agencies have had complaints filed against them, whether people have died under their watch, whether people have been abused while they are in these programs. We don't have access to this kind of detailed information," said Mark.
It's why she's urging Gov. Newsom to sign AB 1147.
"Governor Newsom, this is what you stand for," said Mark. "When you were elected as governor, you talked about accountability and transparency of government funds, and this is a way to ensure that the 450,000 people with developmental disabilities in the state of California are actually restoring trust in the systems that are supposed to serve them."
There's precedent in other nonprofits being susceptible to PRAs. The most significant example is charter schools.
"Charter schools are independent nonprofits and sometimes for profits who are doing the government's job using government money to educate children and students in the state," said Mark.
A 2020 law made charter schools and entities managing charter schools subject to PRA and Brown Act laws. Public records were crucial in ABC10's recent investigation, The Wild West of Education, into Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools.
A number of organizations have supported AB 1147 including Disability Rights California, California's Commission on Aging, California News Publishers Association, California State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Autism Support Community and more.
However, the Association of Regional Center Agencies (ARCA) seemingly stands against the bill. The agency acts as a trade association for California's regional centers.
ARCA told ABC10 they "do not have a position on AB 1147," but California Senate Floor Committee hearing notes show ARCA opposed the bill on Aug. 22, 2024 and a letter from ARCA says they "oppose" the new possible PRA mandate.
ABC10 asked ARCA to clarify how this is not an opposition to the bill. They said their position since summer 2023 has been opposed unless amended with their concerns.
"Since there are no further opportunities to revise the bill, our position was changed to concerns," ARCA President Amy Westling told ABC10.
In its letter to Governor Newsom, ARCA listed several issues and concerns with AB 1147 including high costs (they estimated $10 million) to produce public records and concern over private information being released.
In the letter, ARCA noted the majority of regional center data "contains protected health information" covered by HIPPA.
"ARCA has heard directly from families their wariness about others having access to information specific to their loved one," ARCA said in their letter.
"The reason they use to oppose the bill is actually complete misinformation. What they are saying is that if they are subject to the public records act, they might release private information about individuals and their social security number or their driver's license, which is absolutely not true" said Mark.
Personal and medical information is protected from being released under both California's Public Records Act as well as other laws like HIPPA.
ARCA said its concern is regional center staff do not have the expertise "to prevent the unintentional release of personal information through missed redactions or other errors," according to their letter.
In an email to ABC10, ARCA/Westling said families receiving regional center services already have access to their records and vast amounts of personal information would have to be redacted in order to respond to PRA requests and noted a recent redaction error by the LA County Sheriff's Department that "allowed for the identification of protected officers."
"What I say to the regional centers is what do you have to hide? What are you afraid that we might find out if you are subject to the public records act?" asked Mark. "And if you protest too much, it makes me even more want to know what's going on behind those curtains."
If passed, AB 1147 would also create anti-nepotism laws as well as gift-giving restrictions to prevent case managers and other employees from bribery which sources say have been big issues in the past for regional centers.
