SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento County Superior Court judge sided with ABC10 this week in a public records lawsuit, ordering California Governor Gavin Newsom to release public records detailing meetings between his top aide and power monopoly PG&E.
Government transparency advocates hailed the ruling as pivotal in ensuring the ability of Californians to hold their government officials accountable.
“This is a very important ruling because it establishes a clear rule that the governor's calendar is not completely off limits,” said David Loy, legal director for the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition. “The public has a compelling right to know the full story here, not just the official story.”
ABC10 investigative reporter Brandon Rittiman filed suit to enforce the California Public Records Act, which is meant to assure any member of the public has timely access to records of the government’s activities.
The lawsuit came after Newsom’s office refused a public records request to review one month of calendar entries for meetings between PG&E and a top Newsom aide.
The request followed a very public appearance by Newsom cabinet secretary Ann Patterson at a May 2023 event for PG&E shareholders.
Patterson repeatedly hailed PG&E as a “good partner” throughout a 20-minute conversation with utility executive Carla Peterman, who previously regulated PG&E as a California PUC commissioner.
Newsom’s aide praised PG&E for partnering with the state on “a whole variety of problems,” including “wildfire mitigation.”
The meeting came one week after California PUC commissioners — all Newsom appointees — voted unanimously to allow PG&E to settle without admitting wrongdoing for starting the deadly 2020 Zogg Fire.
The PUC’s own investigators found PG&E committed “severe” and “egregious” safety violations that caused the deaths of four people, including eight-year-old Feyla McLeod who died with her mother while trying to escape.
Judge Shellyanne Chang wrote in her ruling “there is a significant public interest in whether Ms. Patterson met with representatives from PG&E prior to her public appearance at their shareholders’ meeting” due to PG&E’s involvement in starting the Zogg Fire and the 2018 Camp Fire, which resulted in 84 felony manslaughter convictions against the utility.
Deputy Attorney General Keith Wurster argued Monday in Chang’s courtroom the governor’s office should be allowed to keep all calendar entries of meetings from public view, stating “these meetings are intended to be confidential.”
ABC10 asked why the governor believes it's appropriate to be able to hold secret meetings with PG&E. Spokesperson Alex Stack replied, “that’s an inaccurate and misleading description of the work that takes place in our office.”
Stack told ABC10 "we had no involvement" in the CPUC and court cases against PG&E for starting the Zogg Fire.
The records request was made as part of Rittiman’s five-year FIRE - POWER - MONEY reporting project, which investigates the government’s close ties to PG&E in the wake of the Camp Fire.
The reporting also revealed Newsom paid millions of tax dollars to PG&E’s longtime law firm to write new state laws benefiting the company.
ABC10 reporting also held Newsom, the state legislature and members of Congress from both major parties accountable for accepting PG&E political donations after the company first became a convicted felon in 2016.
Some politicians continued accepting donations after the Camp Fire brought the death toll from preventable PG&E disasters to more than 100 people.
Attorney Steven Zansberg, who represented ABC10 and Rittiman in the records act lawsuit, said Newsom’s attempt to shield these meetings from scrutiny come from a familiar playbook.
“Dick Cheney, when he was vice president, engaged in a whole number of meetings with representatives of the oil and gas industry in helping to bring forward policy and legislation that protected that industry,” Zansberg said. “He fought tooth and nail to keep the public from knowing.”
“Unfortunately, Governor Newsom is now in the exact same camp as Dick Cheney.”
Newsom’s office has 60 days to decide whether to comply by releasing the records or to appeal Judge Chang’s ruling.
An appeal could withhold these records for months or years longer, underscoring the delays that can plague records requests in California.
Records delayed amount to records denied, said David Loy with the First Amendment Coalition. It means information stays hidden until it’s too late to hold government leaders accountable.
“This information belongs to the people. This is our information. These are our records,” Loy said. “They're not the private property of the governor.”
