Accessing bids for public contracts
Q: I have submitted a request for public records to an irrigation district, consisting of several documents but most importantly a copy of a publicly read proposal turned in my another contractor. The irrigation district’s general counsel refused the request and quoted Times Mirror v. Superior Court. Public bids are read aloud at the time of opening and are subject to review at that time by any one, how is it now he can refuse me the opportunity to review the bid?
A: We agree that the Times Mirror decision cited by the irrigation district’s general counsel is inapplicable to records, like the public bid, the contents of which have already been publicly revealed. Times Mirror allowed the governor to refuse to release his calendars and other records of people he met with, on the theory that this would reveal too much of the deliberative process. Neither the policies supporting nor the cases interpreting this “deliberative process” exemption to the Public Records Act would seem to apply to public bids that were previously available to any member of the public at the time they were read.
We cannot tell from your email whether you have already submitted a written demand for the bids, but, if not, here is a link to a sample PRA demand letter on CFAC’s website:
http://www.cfac.org/templates/cpraletter.html
If you have already done this and gotten a written response (as required) citing Times-Mirror as the excuse for withholding the information, we would suggest that your attorney write back noting that the deliberative process exemption in Times-Mirror does not apply here and that if you are forced to sue under the PRA to seek access the irrigation district will be required to pay your attorneys fees if the irrigation district then gives you the records or a court orders the irrigation district to do so.