Public Utilities Commission: public availability of utility supplied documents: judicial review.

The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission with certain general authority over all public utilities, including the authority to establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. The Public Utilities Act prohibits the commission or an officer or employee of the commission from disclosing any information furnished to the commission by a public utility, a subsidiary, an affiliate, or a corporation holding a controlling interest in a public utility, unless the information is specifically required to be open to public inspection under the act, except on order of the commission or a commissioner in the course of a hearing or proceeding. Existing law provides that any officer or employee of the commission who divulges any such information is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would prohibit the commission or an officer or employee of the commission from disclosing any information furnished to the commission by a public utility, a subsidiary, an affiliate, or a corporation holding a controlling interest in a public utility, unless the information is specifically required to be open to public inspection by any provision of state or federal law, rather than only by the Public Utilities Act, except on order of the commission or a commissioner in the course of a hearing or proceeding. The bill would require the commission to provide a party furnishing information to the commission with notice and an opportunity to comment prior to the information being made available for inspection or being made public pursuant to this provision. The bill would require the commission, by July 1, 2018, to adopt a written process for the disclosure or publication of information furnished to the commission pursuant to the Public Utilities Act. The bill would make a present or former officer or employee of the commission guilty of a misdemeanor for divulging information contrary to these provisions only if the officer or employee knowingly and willfully makes the disclosure with the knowledge that the information is not publicly disclosable, or with the knowledge that a substantive provision of law required that the information be kept confidential. The California Constitution grants the Legislature plenary authority, unlimited by the other provisions of the Constitution, to establish the manner and scope of review of commission action in a court of record. The Public Utilities Act provides that no court of the state, except the Supreme Court and the court of appeal, has jurisdiction to review, reverse, correct, or annul any order or decision of the commission or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with the commission in the performance of its official duties. This bill would authorize an action against the commission arising under the California Public Records Act to be brought in the superior court.