A small fire district board voted to approve paying up to $2,500 for district firefighters, graduates of the reserve academy and their guests (and apparently the Board members and their guests) to attend an ”Appreciation Dinner” at a rather expensive venue.
At a previous district board meeting (February 2013), the fire chief told the board that he was going to pay $1,100 to rent the venue for the dinner ”because he’s allowed to spend up to $5,000 in administration fees” and that he thought this qualified. He stated that he did not need board approval. The minutes stated that the board ”agreed by consent.”
I asked them to reconsider the expenditure, which was put on the next agenda, but to no avail.
I’ve made a number of PRA requests (minutes, invoices, budget, etc.) that included asking for the names of the attendees and their guests for the dinner. The fire district ’s response to the latest PRA: ”Reservation counts for the dinner were handled by the [firefighters’ association]. A list detailing the names of attendees has not been prepared, and is not expected to be prepared, by either the Fire District or the Firefighters Association.”
Is the firefighters association obligated by the PRA to provide me a list of the attendees and their guests?
A: The Public Records Act, borrowing the definition from the Brown Act, applies only to nonprofit organizations that either (1) were created by an official act of a legislative body or (2) shares a member with an agency’s governing body and receives funds from that same agency. See Govt. Code sections 6252(b) and 54952(c), (d). Depending on whether the Firefighters’ Association meets this test, it may or may not be subject to the Public Records Act.
In general, the Public Records Act only requires that public agencies disclose records in their possession, as opposed to compiling information to answer a specific question. However, if the information related to the dinner attendees was maintained in an electronic database, and the association is indeed subject to the Public Records Act, then it may be that under Gov’t Code section 6253.9, the association would be required to compile a list of the requested information from whatever records it maintains in its electronic databases.
To the extent that the district itself would have any records (i.e., emails) related to the event and its attendees, it might be helpful to make a request that is broad enough to cover any and all of these individual records so that you can compile the information yourself. In other words, rather than asking for a list of attendees, you might want to consider asking for “any records related to dinner attendants and participants, including individual responses from invitees and preliminary rosters of potential attendants.”
Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to FAC hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.