A bill proposed last year that would classify PR firms engaging in grassroots communications activities as lobbyists may come up for a vote this month by the state legislature in California.
A subject of debate in the PR firm community there, the bill is an amendment to the California Political Reform Act of 1974. It would require firms and some staff to register with the state and pay a modest fee if the firms and individuals are engaged in grassroots communication programs. This would include efforts such as mailings or other forms of communication informing and educating constituents and advising them to contact their elected representatives or other public officials. It also would require firms to disclose the identity of clients for whom they provide grassroots communication.
The bill, Senate Bill 524 (SB 524), is sponsored by State Senator Quentin Kopp, an independent. It is under consideration by the state Assembly this month, and may move to the Senate for study before the end of the month, according to Dennis Revell, president and CEO of Revell Communications, a Sacramento PR firm that supports the measure.
Sources say that Gov. Pete Wilson has not taken a position on the proposed legislation.
Editorializing in favor of SB 524 have been a number of California newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, The Oakland Tribune and the Pasadena Star News.
Opinion in the PR agency community, however, is divided. Speaking of the disclosure requirements, Revell said, "Legislators as well as members of the general public have the right to know." Margaret Allender, a partner at Allen Brand Public Relations, Jackson, Calif., says that the bill is "consistent" with the Code of Ethics of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). "Indeed, the issue of how we do business, and openness about things like fees and...the scope of work are fundamental to many [public ] perception problems that PR has."
Among those on the other side of the fence is Bob Giroux, vice president of Nelson Communications, Sacramento. "We don't lobby. The bill is taking the position that we do lobby," he said. "What we do, we put people together with their government" through grassroots efforts.
The question now is, will SB 524 pass? "We feel that we've got a better than even shot" of securing a two-thirds majority in the legislature, the body in which the bill faced its toughest challenge, said Revell. But one of the bill's opponents, Hal Dash, president of Cerrell Associates Inc., Los Angeles, told PR NEWS, "I'm confident the bill will be defeated."