Economic Interest Disclosure Statements
Q: I sent a PRA request to the County Clerk, Recorder, Registrar of Voters, back in January of this year. I Requested to see all the form 700 disclosure statements of economic interests, for each County Extraction Review Team member; whereas stated in the County Conflict of Interest Code, named in APPENDIX “B” as an Entity, and subject to Reporting Category: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
As of today, after contacting her office 7 different times by email and phone, have never seen anything in writing from them.
I was told by her staff, there was no form 700 for the Extraction Review Tea,. I would like that in writing from them.
What do I do? I have filled a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission (file # 08/112)
A: If you submitted a written PRA request, the Clerk’s Office is required by law to provide you a written response within 10 days. See Gov’t Code section 6253. At this point, your recourse would be to file a petition for writ of mandate requiring the Clerk’s Office to respond, either by providing a copy of the form 700 disclosure statements or explainng in writing why they cannot or will not do so (and, in the latter case, citing the specific exemptions the Clerk is claiming allows her to withhold the records).
Before doing so, however, you might consider sending a letter reiterating the Clerk’s obligation and reminding her that, if you are forced to file a lawsuit to get a response and then get some of what you are asking for, you should be entitled to your attorneys fees under Government Code section 6259, which requires that “[t]he court shall award court costs and reasonable attorneys fees to the plaintiff should the plaintiff prevail in litigation filed pursuant to this section.” Sometimes a letter like that can shake lose a response.
By the way, if the Clerk’s Office claims only that it doesn’t have the records, it has an obligation to tell you if another agency does (and to identify the agency). See Gov’t Code section 6253.1. The implication from this section is that it also has an obligation to tell you if the records do not exist and, if you put your request in writing, section 6253.1 seems to require the agency inform you in writing if the records don’t exist.