'Sunshine Week' shows why journalism, reporting matter
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By Dan Walters | CalMatters Columnist |
This is Sunshine Week, which pays homage to the principle that the
public’s business should be public even though officials often try to keep us
in the dark about their unsavory activities.
By happenstance, last week provided Californians with four cogent
examples of why independent journalism is a vital bulwark against shenanigans
and coverups.
The first involves California’s woebegone bullet train project and
Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian, who has broken story after story
about the project’s dipsy-doodle financing and management — or, more
accurately, mismanagement.
Vartabedian’s
latest saga of
the train to nowhere describes how employees of the project’s lead contractor,
WSP, were disciplined if they “failed to toe the company line” that the project
was proceeding smoothly.
“I was told to shut up and not say anything,” Vartabedian quotes
Mark Styles, who had been hired by WSP as a senior scheduler in its Fresno
office. “I was told that I didn’t understand the political arena the project
was in. I told them I am not going to shut up. This is my job.”
Vartabedian wrote, “The atmosphere described by Styles has been
corroborated by a half dozen current and former senior officials knowledgeable
about the project’s Fresno office.”
The second example comes from the Sacramento Bee and reporter Wes
Venteicher, who specializes in the vast state bureaucracy.
His article revealed that the warden of Mule Creek
State Prison, Joe Lizarraga, retired with a $433,000 lump sum payment and an
$11,500 monthly pension while under investigation for theft and trying to cover
up his actions.
Venteicher used the California Public Records Act, a vital tool in
uncovering official malfeasance, to obtain a redacted report from the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that laid out what Lizarraga had
allegedly done.
“The investigation centered on a Sept. 14, 2018, incident at
Interfaith Food Bank Thrift Store in Sutter Creek, according to the report,”
Venteicher wrote. “Lizarraga removed price tags from winter equipment in the
store and then suggested lower prices to a cashier, according to the report.”
Venteicher ‘s article continued, “About two weeks after he visited
the store, Lizarraga wrote a personal money order for $125 to dissuade a
witness from participating in his criminal prosecution, according to the
report.
“On Dec. 24, 2018, he made another bribe attempt using charitable
funds from the prison, according to the report.”
Laurel Rosenhall, a CalMatters reporter who specializes in the
Legislature, revealed that many lawmakers skirt campaign finance laws by setting up personal
charities to which special
interests contribute.
“A nonprofit run by a California assemblyman has helped fund a
literacy organization led by his wife, who, as CEO, was drawing a six-figure
salary,” Rosenhall wrote. “Nonprofits run by lawmakers and their staff are
hosting fundraisers where lobbyists can mingle at the Disneyland Hotel with
politicians, and policy conferences where tech executives can dine in Silicon
Valley with legislators shaping California’s laws on data privacy and the gig
economy.”
“Much of the money has come from corporations and unions with
business before the Legislature, including oil, tobacco and other lobbies whose
political contributions are officially or unofficially shunned by the member’s
party,” Rosenhall continued.
Finally, Fresno Bee reporter Yesenia Amaro, after a
lengthy investigation, reported that a Madera County social worker “intentionally
discarded hundreds of child abuse reports last year.”
Amaro also used the Public Records Act to obtain departmental
emails about the 357 reports that had been dumped by an unnamed social worker,
who’s no longer working for the county.
“While sources said there is no known evidence that any child died
as a result, emails show workers feared children suffered more abuse while
reports were stuffed in waste bins and gathered dust around the social worker’s
desk between September and November last year,” Amaro wrote.
What’s wrong with the situations that Vartabedian, Venteicher,
Rosenhall and Amaro describe? Everything, and Californians would have known
nothing about them without their digging.
CalMatters is a public interest
journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works
and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
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