Access to names of applicants to official positions

Answer

The information you are requesting is not expressly exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act.  There are two cases addressing comparable situations, however, that may be used by the City to justify non disclosure:  Wilson v. Superior Court, 51 Cal. App. 4th1136 (1997), and California First Amendment Coalition v. Superior Court,67 Cal. App. 4th 159 (1998).  Both cases involved applications submitted to the Governor for appointment to vacancies on county boards of supervisors.  In both cases, the courts of appeal held, for a variety of reasons, that the applications were exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act.  One of the main justifications was the so-called”deliberative process privilege.”

The argument made by the Governor,and accepted by the Courts, was that disclosure of the applications would deter applications from providing complete and detailed information about themselves, and thereby interfere with the Governor’s selection process.The City may try to make the same argument.  However, you can and should argue that you are entitled to the names of applicants for the commissions anyway.  Here’s why.  First, the two cases cited above asked for the applications, not just the names.  You are only asking for the names.  Disclosure of the names alone will not have any deterrent effect.  If it does, these people have no place applying for government positions.  Second, Proposition 59, passed last November, was designed to reverse those two cases I just mentioned.  You can download the language of the proposition and the ballot argument from the Secretary of State’s website.

The ballot argument is particularly important (and the courts consider it in deciding what the proposition means and is intended to accomplish.)  I recommend that you read the City the following language from the ballot argument, discussing why Prop. 59 was needed:  “Everyone needs access to information from the government.  Why was a building permit granted or denied.  Who is the Governor considering for appointment to a vacancy on the County Board of Supervisors? . . . .”  This illustrates the kind of information that Prop. 59 was intended to make available to the public.  Sounds like it’s right up your alley.