Facing a midnight deadline to sign or veto hundreds of bills, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger relented on threats to impose a mass veto over lack of progress on overhauling the state’s water system and signed at least 168 of the bills into law, but two open government and free speech bills were not among the 168. Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 218 to bring auxiliary organizations in the University of California and California State University systems under public records laws. The universities had evaded public scrutiny by shifting responsibility on some issues to foundations and other auxiliary organizations. He also vetoed SB242 which protected the freedom of a person to speak any language in a business establishment. The bill was written after the Ladies Professional Golf Association proposed a policy to suspend any golfers who did not speak English. The association later rescinded the proposal. State Senator Leland Yee (D) of San Francisco authored both SB 218 and SB242. -DB
San Francisco Chronicle
October 12, 2009
By Wyatt Buchanan