Local government: legal fee disclosures.

Assembly Member Ávila Farías proposes new transparency requirements for legal fee disclosures by California local governments, responding to concerns about escalating attorney costs that have reached up to $2,000 per hour for some political subdivisions. The legislation mandates that cities, school districts, and community college districts provide unredacted legal invoices to their governing board members upon request and publish bimonthly summaries of legal expenses on their websites.

The bill establishes two primary disclosure mechanisms. First, it requires that all attorney invoices be made available without redaction to requesting members of city councils and district governing boards, with recipients obligated to maintain confidentiality of sensitive information. Second, it mandates that local governments prepare and publicly post bimonthly summaries detailing aggregate legal expenses and identifying retained attorneys or law firms for each matter. The disclosure requirements exempt fees related to pending litigation and information protected by attorney-client privilege.

According to the bill's findings, local governments have spent public funds on legal services without adequate oversight or transparency. The authors cite the City of Santa Monica's expenditure of over $14 million on voting rights litigation while reducing recreation and library services due to budget constraints. The legislation applies to all California cities, including charter cities, as the Legislature determined these provisions address matters of statewide concern rather than municipal affairs.