Public records: health care services contract records.

The Public Records Act provides that records of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that relate to health care services contract negotiations, and that reveal the deliberative processes, discussions, communications, or other portion of the negotiations, are not subject to disclosure until one year after the contract is fully executed, except that the portion of a contract that contains the rates of payment is not open to inspection until 3 years after a contract or amendment is fully executed. The entire contract or amendment is immediately open to inspection by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and the Bureau of State Audits, subject to specified conditions. The act also exempts from disclosure under its provisions records, the disclosure of which is exempted or prohibited under provisions of the Evidence Code, relating to privilege. This bill would include the Legislative Analyst's Office among those entities authorized to inspect the entire contract or amendment, subject to those specified conditions. It would specify that this authorization applies notwithstanding a provision of the Evidence Code permitting an owner of a trade secret to invoke a privilege against disclosure of that secret.