FPPC conducts public random draws to select sample of legislative districts and lobbyists

The Fair Political Practices Commission held a public draw in hearing room 3800 to select random samples used in its oversight work, drawing 25% of listed entities in four categories and announcing that results will be posted to the commission’s draw results webpage.

Patricia Valentine, a program specialist in the commission’s audit division, opened the session and described the agenda and supporting handouts, which included lists of assembly districts, senate districts, lobbying firms and lobbyist employers. The draws were conducted under the authority cited on the agenda as “section 90,001 of the Political Reform Act.”

The draw operator demonstrated the selection program and then ran the public selections. The commission selected 20 of the 80 assembly districts (25%); 5 of the 20 senate districts (25%); 121 of the 482 listed lobbying firms (25%, rounded); and 209 of the 837 lobbyist employers (25%). The selections were displayed on-screen during the meeting and participants were given time to copy or screenshot the results.

Judy Liu, an associate management auditor, ran the drawing program and scrolled through result pages while staff provided brief pauses to allow attendees to record the selections. Clara Rios, the audit division’s office technician, and Elwin Yabe from the IT department were present to support the session.

Valentine said the draw results will be posted on the FPPC draw results webpage as soon as possible and noted that two additional draws are scheduled for August and December of this year. "Okay. This concludes today's draw," Valentine said at the session’s end.

The meeting record and the posted draw results will serve as the official record of which districts and lobbyists were selected for whatever subsequent audit or review processes the commission pursues under the Political Reform Act.