Bureaucratic Maze a Little Less Confusing

A tiny trail has been blazed into the bureaucratic wilderness of a 60-volume treatise known as the California Administrative Code.

The code’s 40,000 pages tell businesses, schools, farmers and institutions what’s what in state regulations.

All one has to do is find the stuff, because the code has never been indexed by subject, agency or private sector affected.

While the regulatory code has grown and changed rapidly over the years, the job of finding out just what those regulations might mean to a specific business has grown to nearly impossible proportions.

There Was No Guide

“Imagine, if you’d ever been cited for a violation (of a state regulation) and wondered why, you wouldn’t be able to find the violation, because there was absolutely no index to the California Administrative Code,” said Linda Hurdle Stockdale Brewer, director of the state Office of Administrative Law.

Brewer, who uses four names for complex reasons of her own, was an attorney in private practice before she became director of the office. It was formed in 1980 to streamline government regulations and ensure they are written in language understandable to the general public.

“I had a client who was trying to establish a (nursing) care home and wanted to find out the regulations he’d have to follow,” Brewer recalled. “I couldn’t find an index, and, believe it or not, all the regulations covering every possible subject matter were just all in here chronologically.”

The office has just completed the first of several “public oriented” indexes to the code, listing for the first time all state regulations on toxics. The toxics requirements fill two thick volumes.

Makes Job Easier

While it hardly qualifies as bedtime reading except for insomniacs searching for a cure, “Title 26, Toxics” and its accompanying index should make wading through the bureaucracy a lot easier for dry cleaners, waste haulers, beauticians and students, lawyers and citizens interested in the environment.

A beekeeper, for example, could find a section devoted to telling what pesticides are most toxic to bees, and what steps to take to ensure he’ll be notified if a nearby orange grower plans to use those pesticides.

Dry cleaners will find four pages of regulations devoted to their business--telling them how to store, use and dispose of solvents, and about ventilation and consumer safety requirements.

There are toxics regulations affecting canneries, beauty shops, podiatrists, snow avalanche blasters and upholsterers.

Compiling regulations relating to the ever-expanding field of toxics was seen as essential by some businesses, because no fewer than 17 state agencies have something to do with setting rules relating to hazardous chemicals.

Had to Hire Attorneys

Businesses at risk of violating any of the regulations--from “mom and pop” dry cleaners to chemical manufacturers--had to hire attorneys to find and figure out the rules before the index and compilation were made available, Brewer said.

Last February, a group of small businesses complained to Brewer that fines for violation of toxics regulations are stiff and, while they’d like to comply with the rules, they couldn’t afford lawyers to find them and figure them out.

Not only does the new index and filing by subject make it easier for the public to find the regulations, it costs a lot less for people who must have updated versions of the rules on hand.

The cost of subscribing to the dozen or so volumes of the administrative code containing regulations relating to toxics was $1,400 a year; a copy of Title 26 costs $100, and annual updates, $150.

Brewer’s office is “making haste slowly” with the task of standardizing and indexing the rest of the code, said a spokeswoman who didn’t want her name used. Not only is the information not computerized--the office just this month had computer terminals installed--each agency’s regulations are filed under different headings, some by “chapters,” some by “divisions,” some by “articles.”

After the titles are standardized, the Office of Administrative Law will look for ways to sensibly index the material, the spokeswoman said, adding with a sigh, “It’s a mammoth undertaking.”