Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation found that the Department of Justice, under then-Attorney General (AG) Bill Lockyer, inappropriately labeled hundreds of contracts as “confidential,” protecting them from public scrutiny. The $1 million no-bid contract for employee parking was eye-raising to be sure, but even more troubling were a $500,000 contract with lobbyists who the AP reported are “friends” of Lockyer and a $2 million contract with a law firm whose partners were donors to Lockyer’s campaigns.

To date, the AG’s office has only allowed 131 of more than 1,700 contracts to be examined. The contents of the remaining 1,500 contracts are still a mystery that now-AG Jerry Brown seems reluctant to help solve. The AP’s attempt to get answers, and the subsequent questions that AG Brown’s silence has raised, demonstrates just how badly California needs reform of contracting procedures in the attorney general’s office.

Ever since private trial lawyers earned billions of dollars by helping states extract record-breaking settlements through litigation against tobacco companies, they have been more than eager to sign on to assist AGs in litigating cases. Certainly, these arrangements are often contingent upon a successful outcome in the case, but the payout from the deep pockets who are targeted for these suits – including automakers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and the lending industry – more than make up for that uncertainty.

While none of us would deny that the duties of the AGs sometimes call for retention of more assistance than their staff can provide, these arrangements are cause for concern when they are made with financially-connected, politically-motivated personal injury attorneys who are neither elected by nor accountable to the people of the state of California.

In fact, a recent survey shows just how fed up many Californians are. The American Tort Reform Association has just released a survey probing Californian’s attitudes toward AGs’ contingency fee agreements with outside lawyers. The results show vast majorities of Californians want greater public disclosure and legislative oversight of these contracts, with 73 percent wanting the contracts available to the public on the Internet and 71 percent stating the legislature should be allowed to review contracts before they’re signed. Eighty-three percent of respondents believe the AG should require private attorneys retained through contingency agreements to release detailed records of the hours they work and the tasks they perform.

These commonsense reforms – already enacted in many states in the form of “Private Attorney Retention Sunshine Acts” – appear as though they should be easily digestible to AGs who are sworn to protect the interests of the people of their states. Ironically, even those with long histories of public service, like our own AG, have little apparent desire for the transparency and accountability these reforms would require.

Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) expects this kind of behavior from AGs like former New York AG Elliott Spitzer and former California AG Bill Lockyer, but we had hoped that Jerry Brown might resist this trend. During his campaign, Brown called into question Lockyer’s suit against the automakers for their contribution to global warming and claimed he’d conduct the business of his office with “careful and judicious” use of power. Brown’s actions since his inauguration, however, seem to tell another story.

On April 17, CALA issued its report card of AG Brown’s first 100 days in office, giving him an overall grade of D. The report card rated AG Brown on five areas: Fighting Crime (F), Regulating by Litigating (C), Using the Power of the Office Appropriately (A-), Supporting Contracting Reforms (C) and Communicating with Constituents (F).

Most of the grades were low due to AG Brown’s apparent amnesia when it comes to his own statements about the appropriate role of an AG. He claims to focus on fighting crime, but parties interested in solutions in that area are finding actions speak louder than words.

An article published in Vida En La Valle last Wednesday described the scene at a recent meeting between Latino leaders and the AG noting, “Former California governor and current state Attorney General Jerry Brown wanted to talk about global warming, but about 25 Valley Latino leaders he met with last week called for a summit to discuss how to crack down on the growing gang problem. Seeing no one who wanted to talk about climate changes, Brown agreed to meet again to discuss the gang problem at an as-yet-undetermined date.”

Brown’s newly discovered obsession with greenhouse gases, while noble sounding, is problematic to his job performance. Not only is it a complete about face from his campaign promises, it is permeating all aspects of his tenure thus far and is detracting from other responsibilities.

Noticeably absent from AG Brown’s daily activities is any communication with the people about his priorities, plans and progress. Until last week, Brown had posted only two press releases to his website. (Three have been posted since then; ironically, the first was to announce the hiring a communications director. We can only hope this means we’ll see more communication and information forthcoming.) Certainly the people deserve to know what their elected officials are doing with their time and resources.

Thus far, Brown has apparently been deliberate about his decisions to initiate new lawsuits, though again, activity has recently picked up. But filing lawsuits is not the only area where his movements have been slow. Brown’s response to the above-mentioned contracting controversy was delayed until the threat of a Senate Budget Subcommittee hearing forced him to institute new policies regarding the designation of contracts as “confidential.” But this response, while welcome, fails to go far enough.

Unless and until AG Brown releases the details of the remaining Lockyer contracts, he forces those of us who serve as watchdogs to question his motives and actions. We are hopeful he will emerge as an attentive and competent AG. But as each day passes with no response, no reform and no departure from his predecessor’s ways, we are becoming more and more fearful our hope has been misplaced.