Yee, Leland

By State Senator Leland Yee

There is an unfortunate growing trend among our public higher education institutions of doing public business behind closed doors without any accountability to the taxpayer. Over the past several years, I have authored new laws to bring greater transparency to executive compensation decisions and provide protections to students and workers who report waste, fraud, and abuse.  

However, another such abuse has remained unresolved for nearly ten years despite court challenges and two legislative attempts at a fix: public university auxiliary organizations. Although statutorily defined as non-profits, campus auxiliary organizations are often governed by university officials such as campus presidents and have assumed many essential functions within universities such as operating book stores and parking facilities. According to the California State University, campus auxiliaries now account for 20 percent of the entire CSU budget.  

By State Senator Leland Yee

With the rising cost of prescription drugs and the ongoing health care coverage crisis, the prevalent use of free sample prescription drugs has drawn increased scrutiny. 

The oversight of sample prescription drugs is often incomplete or non-existent, which has resulted in patients receiving drugs with inadequate information regarding dosing schedule, side effects, and potential drug interactions.

Today, I introduced legislation that would require sample prescription drugs received at a doctor’s offices or medical clinic to be accompanied with the same written information regarding the drugs that would normally be received from a pharmacist.

It is vital that consumers receive written information regarding dosage and potential side effects on sample drugs. This bill will reduce lawsuits, illnesses, and deaths.

By State Senator Leland Yee

As a result of a legal settlement at a California high school, school administrators are on notice to stop censoring student speech. 

After settling an 18-month legal battle, Fallbrook Union High School District must pay nearly $28,000 as a result of a principal violating the speech rights of student journalists and unfairly retaliating against the high school’s newspaper advisor.  In addition, the Fallbrook administration is obligated to issue letters praising the student journalists as part of the lawsuit settlement.

By State Senator Leland Yee

While serving in the Assembly and the Senate, I have proudly authored a number of laws to protect student speech rights and provide greater transparency at California school campuses. 

AB 2581 (2006) made California the first state in the nation to specifically prohibit censorship of college student press and explicitly granted free speech rights to students.  SB 1370 (2008) further protects school employees from retaliation for assisting students in exercising such speech rights. 

Although California may lead the nation in providing legal protections for student speech rights, a report released this week showed nearly 70 percent of our public universities are violating state law or the US Constitution through policies restricting free expression. 

On a 22-14 vote, the California State Senate today approved legislation to provide University of California employees who report waste, fraud and abuse with the same legal protections as other state employees. Despite overwhelming support from open government advocates and UC students, faculty, and workers, the University administration continues to oppose the measure authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo).

"This is the classic case of the fox guarding the hen house, and yet another example of UC administrators opposing a commonsense reform," said Yee. "UC executives should not be judge and jury on whether or not they are liable for monetary claims. This was not the intent of California´s whistleblower law."

By Leland Yee, Ph.D.
Assistant President pro Tem
California State Senate

A law that would prohibit public entities from recovering attorney’s fees from individuals who sue to enforce the State’s open government laws, specifically the California Public Records Act (CPRA), Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, and the Ralph M. Brown Act was signed into law by the Governor yesterday.

The law allows public agencies to recover costs if the court finds the suit frivolous.