Politics & Government

Speaker's Office: Portantino's Staff Bailed Him Out (Updated)

Despite the cancellation of furloughs which Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, described as punishment for his vote on the state budget, a lawsuit and legislation pushing for greater transparency are still active.

While Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, with the Assembly's Democratic leadership, a representative of Assembly Speaker John Perez says that the cancellation of the furloughs in no way vindicates Portantino.

John Vigna, a spokesman for Speaker Perez, told Patch Wednesday that the only reason that the furloughs were cancelled was because of two staff members who left Portantino's office, saving the required funds to retain the rest of the staff. He continued to maintain that Portantino overspent his office budget and blasted Portantino for refusing to deal with the issue.

"Essentially the staff found a way to mitigate their issues," Vigna said. "The sad part is that Mr. Portantino, through his intransigence, refused to take any action, so his staff took the action for him."

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Portantino, in response, said the Speaker's office was taking unnecessary shots and him and his staff.

"What a sad commentary on the Speaker's operation," Portantino said. "They continue to use the terrific staff who have done so much for the 44th district as pawns to distract the public from the real issues."

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Portantino went on to accuse them of a lack of transparency on releasing information on their staff budgets.

Others, including the California Common Sense organization, have backed Portantino on his accusations of a lack of transparency -   In addition, the Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times filed a joint lawsuit over the data released by the Assembly.

Portantino has always said that the fight over his office budget was , a notion that Vigna denied once again on Wednesday.

Wendy Gordon, a spokeswoman for Portantino, confirmed Wednesday that two employees had left the office over the last few months and two more had gone on leave. She said the two who went on leave did so because of the threatened furloughs, and that one of them is on leave for work-related stress related to the issue.

Unresolved Issues

While the issues have now been resolved for the office staff, the backlash from the conflict could continue to have ramifications for the Legislature: There is still Portantino legislation pending for next year's Assembly session that would change the Legislature's open records laws, and the Assembly still faces the lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee.

The lawsuit was filed in response to Portatino's claim that he was singled out. The newspapers are seeking better spending records on lawmaker's office budgets.

According to a Sacramento Bee article from last month, the papers' attorneys felt that records released by the state since the lawsuit was filed  were insufficient because they do not show exactly what budget each legislator's office was allocated and whether some lawmakers were granted additional funds throughout the legislative session. A hearing in the lawsuit is planned for December.

Vigna confirmed the lawsuit is still active despite the cancellation of the furloughs.

In addition, Portantino's legislation, AB 1129, is still active.  It would require that the Legislature follow the California Public Records Act (CPRA), the public disclosure law that all other government bodies in the state follow.

Currently, the Legislature follows its own public records act, which has been heavily criticized by open records advocates as allowing for backroom discussions over pending legislation that would not be permitted in other levels of government.


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