In the waning days of each legislative session, principles of good governance are cast aside amid the flurry of bills that must be passed by midnight on the final day.

Doomsday chaos is now so commonplace that capital city observers are usually unfazed by all the hijinks that occur. Bypassing the process is unfortunately only part of the process. But this year set a low water mark for the swamp.

Despite having more than 100 bills to act on before their constitutional mandate deadline, the Assembly decided to convene at the quiet hour of 2 pm on August 31, a Saturday, the last day of the session. To make matters worse, they didn’t even show up on time and when they did, they took time out of their busy schedule for group photos.

As the night wore on, it became apparent that the legislative leadership would suffer the consequences of its lack of urgency. Instead of looking inward, the Democratic supermajority, which controls every step of the process, decided that this was not a result of their own actions, but rather the need for deliberation and debate. Forgive us, but we were taught that deliberation and debate were an important part of the legislative process.

Assembly leaders moved to limit debate on bills to just 30 seconds per speaker. When Republican Rep. Bill Essayli protested, he was told he was “using dilation tactics” and would not be allowed to speak on any bill. When he protested further, claiming it was undemocratic to silence him and the nearly half a million Californians he represents, his microphone was cut.

In the end, several high-profile laws were left unaddressed as time ran out, apparently a self-inflicted problem.

The process is clearly broken and needs reform and for that reason we should return California to a part-time legislature. This is not as crazy as it sounds. Before Proposition 1A was passed in 1966, California had a part-time legislature. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the legislature met in general session (in which all subjects could be discussed) in odd-numbered years and in budget session (in which only state budget matters were considered) in even-numbered years.”

Plus, most states don’t have full-time legislators. In fact, only ten states do: California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The rest of the states meet part-time, and some states (such as Montana, Nevada, Texas, and North Dakota) meet only in odd-numbered years.

Ironically, the argument for a full-time legislator is that they have more time to deliberate, make better informed decisions, and that their higher compensation allows them to focus solely on the job of governing. But six of those (California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan) are among the seven states that lost congressional seats in the 2020 census. If these states really governed more effectively, people would flock to them. Instead, they flee.