Politics & Government
Local Lawmaker Pushes to Protect Political Whistleblowers
Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez wants to establish protections for legislative staffers who report ethics or other breaches by their bosses.
TEMECULA, CA - A Riverside County lawmaker Thursday re-introduced legislation seeking to establish protections for legislative staffers who report ethics or other breaches by their bosses, even though identical bills have been stopped in previous legislative sessions.
"This is the fourth year I have carried this legislation," said Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore. "Each year, the Democrat majority has chosen to kill this anti-corruption legislation because they fear accountability. The Legislature has a duty to ensure a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to corruption, and I will not stop pushing this legislation until that is the case."
Melendez's Assembly Bill 403 replicates a measure she authored in early 2016 -- AB 1788 -- which died in the Senate Appropriations Committee after its chair, Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-South Gate, dumped it in the committee's suspense file.
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The "Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act" seeks to ensure that members of the Legislature, as well as their agents, face penalties for intimidating or threatening a person who attempts to draw attention to their misdeeds.
The law would provide the same protections that are afforded employees in state agencies and the courts under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1999, freeing staffers to file ethics complaints or other official allegations of wrongdoing by lawmakers or underlings without fear of retaliation.
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The Assembly overwhelmingly supported AB 1788.
"I understand how close to home this may be for Senate Democrats," Melendez said of her latest proposal. "With arrests of Senators Yee, Wright and Calderon in just the past four years, I'd think the Democrats would now want to take the necessary steps to protect this institution and prevent further embarrassment."
"I hope my colleagues in the Legislature will put the integrity of our government ahead of their own self-interest and hold ourselves to a higher standard," she said.
- City News Service / Image via Shutterstock
