Documents show clout of lobbyists with governor

[davidinalameda]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/07/MNGFGEJIRA1.DTL

Within hours of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inauguration in 2003 -- a day on which he pledged to devote state government "to your interests, not to special interests" -- business lobbyists began urging the nascent administration to weaken a law guaranteeing the right of workers to meal breaks.

In the months that followed, new court records show, a receptive Schwarzenegger administration worked intimately with the lobbyists -- particularly those for the California Restaurant Association -- to craft "emergency" regulations that would fulfill their agenda: end obligatory meal breaks and place new limits on employers' liability for violating the law in the past.

The lobbyists repeatedly reviewed drafts of the proposed rule change, at least once at the Schwarzenegger administration's request, and gave government officials what one lobbyist called "the official 'green light' " to move forward with the final version, according to the documents.