![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/21271fb1-6e06-4bcf-8b56-97b158a0e14b_1759272616.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that prohibits future governors and top California officials from using nondisclosure agreements when crafting state laws or deciding how to spend taxpayer money. <\/p>\n
Nondisclosure agreements are contracts that legally require individuals to keep information confidential. <\/p>\n
(Previous coverage in video above)<\/p>\n
The bill was introduced in response to reporting on how California\u2019s government has either used nondisclosure agreements or allowed groups to use them at taxpayer expense. <\/p>\n
In 2024, the governor\u2019s office allowed labor group SEIU California to require the fast-food industry to sign nondisclosure agreements during the creation of California\u2019s fast-food minimum wage law. <\/p>\n
The new law was authored by Rocklin Assemblyman Joe Patterson. Last year, Patterson also wrote a law, approved by state lawmakers and the governor, that specifically prohibited state lawmakers from using nondisclosure agreements when drafting new legislation.<\/p>\n
The bill is in direct response to KCRA 3’s reporting on how California’s government has either used them or allowed groups to use them on the taxpayers’ dime. <\/p>\n
Patterson’s Assembly Bill 1652 aims to make their use a crime for the California governor and his administration, similar to a new law, which Patterson also wrote, that made it a crime for state lawmakers<\/a>. <\/p>\n “This bill is an essential step in increasing transparency throughout California’s government,” Patterson said. “Especially the administration, they are involved in the negotiations for every major piece of legislation that passes out of California.” <\/p>\n KCRA 3 first reported in 2024 that state lawmakers and other key voices were entirely left out of the negotiations of California’s fast-food minimum wage law<\/a>, which raised pay to $20 an hour for fast-food workers across the state but provided a mysterious exemption for bakeries that sell and bake their own bread.<\/p>\n Newsom’s office oversaw the negotiations and allowed NDAs to cover the secret talks at the insistence of a major labor organization<\/a>, SEIU California. Newsom’s office has said neither the governor nor his staff signed them. Since then, no one has been able to explain the bakery exemption, but multiple sources have told KCRA 3 it was for one of the governor’s billionaire donors, who is also a Panera franchisee<\/a>.<\/p>\n Harsh Ghai, one of the largest operators of Burger King restaurants in the country, told KCRA 3 he was left in the dark about the law because of the use of NDAs. Joseph Bryant, an SEIU official who is also a member of California’s Fast-Food Council, which is meant to set the wages and working conditions for the workers across the state, would not confirm or deny that he signed the NDA.<\/a><\/p>\n KCRA 3 was also the first to report the government’s use of NDAs in the California Legislature\u2019s construction of a new $1 billion and counting office building for state lawmakers and the governor. The Legislature directed 2,000 people, including five state lawmakers and dozens of people in the governor’s administration, to sign NDAs to keep broad information about the Capitol Annex project secret<\/a>. <\/p>\n It has been years since project leaders provided taxpayers with an update on the estimated cost of the project. <\/p>\n KCRA 3 Political Director Ashley Zavala <\/a>reports in-depth coverage of top California politics and policy issues. She is also the host of “California Politics 360<\/a>.” Get informed each Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on KCRA 3. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California bans nondisclosure agreements in state lawmaking and taxpayer spending Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that prohibits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75799,2672,14712,75798,3653,7,64057,2926,9,8,400,723,176633,4375,405,943,1776,75800,473,21908,20796,9726,3889,3290,20797,346,24879,43963,11662,73107,176632],"class_list":["post-445857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ab1652","tag-administration","tag-agreement","tag-assembly-bill-1652","tag-bill","tag-california","tag-california-bill","tag-california-governor","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-crime","tag-fast-food-minimum-wage-law","tag-gov-newsom","tag-government","tag-governor","tag-information","tag-joe-patterson","tag-kcra","tag-nda","tag-ndas","tag-negotiation","tag-new-law","tag-newsom","tag-non-disclosure-agreements","tag-office","tag-patterson","tag-project-leader","tag-state-lawmaker","tag-taxpayer-dollar","tag-taxpayer-expense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}