Bill’s New Life Angers Supporters

When a bill facing imminent death is kept alive for another year in the state Legislature, one would think its proponents would be overjoyed.

In the case of SB 11, which would bar corporations from hiding public health and safety information through secret settlements, its consumer-rights advocates couldn’t be more furious.

And the object of much of their ire is Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), who counts himself among the bill’s staunchest supporters.

The proposed legislation lacked enough support to pass in the Assembly, Hertzberg said. So rather than allow it to die, Hertzberg decided last week to hold it until the next legislative session to give its advocates time to round up support.

No Assembly Republicans backed the bill; other opponents are pro-business Democrats, the bill’s supporters say.

Consumer advocates said they would rather see the bill voted down than languish.

“Then we would know which legislators to [hold accountable]. We can go to the public and say, look, this legislator cares more about corporate interests than your safety,” said Elisa Odabashian, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that lobbies for consumer rights.

“If [Hertzberg] was truly personally supportive of the bill, he would have allowed it to be voted on,” Odabashian said. “It would have forced his colleagues, the ‘business Democrats’ in the Assembly, to go on the record with their votes.”

Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), author of the bill, said she was in tears over what Hertzberg did.

“He deep-sixed it,” Escutia said. “By doing this . . . the speaker was protecting his members.”

Hertzberg denies those accusations.

SB 11, which was bitterly opposed by a powerful coalition of high-tech, pharmaceutical and insurance industry interests, would have prohibited the sealing of discovery materials in lawsuits over defective products or environmental hazards that allegedly caused great bodily injury or death.

“This bill would simply allow evidence of defective products and environmental hazards to be made public so people can protect themselves,” said Bruce Broillet, president of Consumer Attorneys of California.

Opponents say the bill was ill-conceived.

“It would have had terrible unintended consequences,” said John H. Sullivan, president of Civil Justice Assn. of California, a nonprofit group representing business interests that lobbied against the bill. The bill’s language could allow disclosure of trade secrets and other information that could “increase public disparagement of a company,” Sullivan said.

The bill needed 41 votes to pass in the 80-member Assembly. Hertzberg, who said he worked “nearly every day, every other day” for months trying to pass this bill, discovered he had only 33 or 34 votes.

“I stood on the floor and argued vigorously for this bill,” Hertzberg said. By delaying a vote until next year, he added, “I was trying to buy more time . . . keep this alive.”