SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Select committees in the California Legislature are designed for elected officials to study issues outside the day-to-day demands of lawmaking. They also allow lawmakers to fill their office staff with workers not listed as part of their operating budgets.
These are the committees in the California Assembly that charged taxpayers for staff in the 2013-14 session. With the exception of Shirley Weber, the leaders of these committees did not have traditional committee leadership posts that come with additional staff funding.
Committee, Chair, Staff Costs, Number of Hearings
Community Colleges, Steve Fox, $644,071, 1
Workforce and Vocational Development in California, Rudy Salas, $357,305, 2
Regional Approaches to Addressing the State’s Water Crisis, Rudy Salas, $318,796, 2
Job Creation for the New Economy, Sharon Quirk-Silva, $264,114, 1
Regional Transportation Solutions, Sharon Quirk-Silva, $161,433, 1
Community and Neighborhood Development, Ken Cooley, $245,473, 1
Agriculture and the Environment, Marc Levine, $129,555, 3
Local Emergency Preparedness, Freddie Rodriguez, $92,828, 3
Campus Climate, Shirley Weber, $55,581, 4
Select committee staff spending was more common in the state Senate which spent $4.4 million last session. These five committees never met in the session, although some had activities outside of formal hearings.
Committee, Chair, Staff Costs
Manufactured Home Communities, Richard Roth, $540,155
Ports and Good Movement, Ricardo Lara, $232,450
Excellence, Innovation and Accountability in State Government, Mark DeSaulnier, $172,386
California Job Creation and Retention, Rod Wright, $93,243
California Film and TV Industries, Ron Calderon, $70,618
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Source: Legislative expenditure reports, Assembly Daily Journal archive, Senate calendar
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