Some Mandated Records Don’t Exist

State government is supposed to know, but it doesn’t. While an Associated Press survey of public records found that much of the data the state collects at taxpayer expense is difficult for taxpayers to access, some of the data the state is supposed to be collecting goes unrecorded.

For instance, under a 1993 law, the state was supposed to begin collecting information on distinguished women and minorities who were available to serve on diversity-minded corporate boards.

The state also is supposed to have a database from which you can learn many things about housing in your area.

But don’t try to use either of the services because--like a smattering of others uncovered in the AP survey--they don’t really exist.

In another instance, the state--officially--has a database showing wildlife losses from causes other than pesticides. But only a small portion of the database has been restored after a computer crash in November 1996.

The AP asked the secretary of state’s office for a copy of the database of distinguished minorities and women, officially called the Corporate Director Candidates Registry. The request was made under the California Public Records Act, intended to ensure public access to government records.

The office said it had created an advisory task force to develop the service. But officials said that’s pretty much as far as it went.

The Legislature never came up with funds for start-up costs such as setting up the application process, equipment to organize the information and employees to run the program, said Secretary of State Bill Jones.

“Realities of implementing the registry . . . were not thoroughly considered,” Jones said.

Former state Sen. Lucy Killea, the San Diego independent who wrote legislation creating the database, said she is disappointed but not surprised.

“Everybody thought it was a great idea, but implementing it was quite a job,” Killea said.

Jones said a small number of minorities and women have registered as candidates. But his office has not received a single query from a corporation because there has never been a campaign to make companies aware of the service.

Even if the database did exist, taxpayers--who finance the service--couldn’t use it. Access is restricted to those who are seeking to fill a corporate director position.

The Housing and Community Development Department’s Technical Assistance Databank is supposed to provide information such as housing types and vacancy rates for a given area.

But the department said it no longer maintains the information. A lack of funds, together with technical difficulties posed by such an extensive database, led to deletion of the information from department computers in 1995 or 1996, said department attorney Molly Arnold.

The wildlife-losses database is maintained by the state Department of Fish and Game. But when asked for a copy, department official William Clark had bad news.

“Unfortunately, our computerized database crashed last November and all database records were lost,” Clark said.

About half of the records for 1996 have been reentered, he said.