The California Supreme Court struck a blow today for public access to government records in reversing a lower court decision holding that Orange County did not have to provide the public its geographic information system (GIS) free of charge. The Sierra Club sued the county after it proposed a fee of $375,000 for the database.
The GIS creates a map with parcels of land including geographic boundaries, assessor parcel numbers, street address and links to information on parcel owners.
The court reversed a Court of Appeals decision affirming a Superior Court ruling that computer software developed by the county was exempt from the public records act (Section 6254.9) and not subject to disclosure.
In its reversal, the Supreme Court cited Section 6253.9 of the CPRA that an agency holding a public record in electronic form must make the information accessible. The Supreme Court ruled that in the event two sections of the public records law seem in conflict, the wording “shall be broadly construed if it furthers the people’s right of access, and narrowly construed it it limits the right of access.”
The Court cited an Attorney General opinion in 2005 that the parcel map data in electronic format does not qualify as a computer mapping system and must be provided to the public at duplication cost.
The Court also found that since Orange County had offered the disputed database in an alternative format that there were no confidentiality concerns blocking the release of the database.
Santa Clara County lost a case brought by the First Amendment Coalition in 2009 in a San Jose Court of Appeals. The county lost its claim of software exemption at trial but appealed on the grounds of copyright, national security and the CPRA “catchall exemption.” The appeals court rejected each of the county’s arguments.
The Supreme Court decision in Sierra Club v. Orange County solidifies the ruling of the San Jose Court of Appeals in the Santa Clara County case. -db