Capitol Alert: Nonprofit paid for climate conference, lodging for Jerry Brown's staff

The nonprofit foundation used by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to finance overseas trade missions and a going-away party for administration officials was used by Gov. Jerry Brown last year to pay for a climate change conference and for hotel lodging for staffers from out of town, among other activities, an official said.

The California State Protocol Foundation, funded primarily by donations left over from Brown's inaugural committee, spent about $24,000 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel for administration staffers traveling to Sacramento from out of town, mostly in the months immediately after Brown took office, said George Kieffer, the Los Angeles lawyer who heads the foundation.

The foundation spent about $13,000 on travel and about $7,500 for the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Capitol, he said. It spent about $1,200 for a reception at the Capitol to celebrate swearing in of Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court.

After Brown was sworn in last year, his inaugural committee donated leftover funds to the foundation and to the California State Residence Foundation, which pays the rent at Brown's loft in Sacramento. Kieffer said the Protocol Foundation received $150,000 from the committee, whose donors represented a range of interests with business before the state.

At the Democratic governor's behest, donors including the California Ocean Science Trust and the California Academy of Sciences also contributed about $100,000 to the Protocol Foundation to host a climate change conference in San Francisco. AT&T donated $13,065 for 1,500 long distance telephone cards for California National Guard troops overseas.

The Protocol Foundation's remaining balance is about $100,000, Kieffer said.

The foundation's operations were more expansive when Schwarzenegger was governor. In 2010, his final year in office, corporate donors contributed more than $1 million to the foundation at his behest.

"So far, the governor has made this a fairly easy task," Kieffer said of Brown. "He's just not spending a lot of money."