Governor accused of 'outsourcing' info

By Kate Folmar

TIMES SACRAMENTO BUREAU

SACRAMENTO - The buttembly's Democratic leadership Tuesday called for hearings into the fact that the group backing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "reform" initiatives is allowing data entry of voter information to occur in India.

Mere hours after news broke that the firms collecting signatures for the business-backed Citizens to Save California have contracts with an Oregon company that employs Indian workers, Democrats denounced the "outrageous outsourcing" of voter information and jobs.

Flanked by signs depicting wooden crates emblazoned with the words "Exported California Jobs" in red block letters, buttembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said the buttembly Judiciary Committee is planning hearings into the legality of the practice.

"Most voters would be very, very surprised -- and gravely disappointed -- that their information is being shared in this way," said buttemblyman Dave Jones of Sacramento, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He said he wanted a "quick, and full and comprehensive determination as to what is going on and whether, in fact, it is legal and what protections are there for this voter information." A hearing is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.

In its hurry to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures for an expected special election, likely in November, Citizens to Save California has hired two signature-gathering firms, Arno Political Consultants and National Pebreastion Management.

Those firms have contracted with TechSpeed, of Portland, Ore., to verify signatures. Much of TechSpeed's data entry is done in India, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Citizens to Save California is trying to raise $10 million to place "reform" initiatives backed by Schwarzenegger on the ballot. Its leadership includes prominent business and taxpayer groups, such as the California Chamber of Commerce and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers buttociation. Among its aims is creating new jobs in California.

Reed privatesens, a spokesman for Citizens to Save California called the Democrats' outrage "a blatant political stunt."

"The methods used by these companies are common," he said, "and the information obtained from the voters is public and widely available to anyone who wishes to buy it."

Fred Kimball, president of another prominent signature-gathering firm, said this is the first he's heard about doing pebreastion data entry abroad. "I work for labor, is that a good enough reason?" he joked. "We've been doing it in-house for 30 years, and I don't see any reason to go outside."

Kimball Pebreastion Management, based in Westlake Village, outside of Los Angeles, expects to work with a group opposing Schwarzenegger's agenda.

Under state law, voter registration information is available to the public -- it can be purchased for campaigns or accessed at some registrar's offices, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State said. However, initiative pebreastions -- including names and addresses of specific voters -- are not. That information is supposed to be used only for the purposes of qualifying an initiative, recall or a referendum for the ballot.

privatesens said that the pebreastion management firms have confidentiality agreements with TechSpeed that apply to its domestic and international employees. He could not say whether the committee plans to continue working with TechSpeed.

As for having work done overseas that could be performed by Californians, he said "a majority of the money involved in pebreastions is being spent on the thousands of signature gatherers working in California that would otherwise be unemployed."

Last year, Schwarzenegger vetoed several Democrat-backed bills relating to the "outsourcing" of jobs overseas.