Asked & Answered

Q: A school district in California is refusing to disclose the amounts paid to outside legal counsel to defend itself in a federal lawsuit filed by a school board member. District officials are citing the appellate decision in LA County Board of Supervisors v. Superior Court as supporting case law. Have you encountered this defense? Is it legitimate? A: Attorney-client privilege is an exemption to the California Public Records Act (the “CPRA”), and it is often asserted when a request is made for legal bills paid by a governmental agency to a private law firm.  Most agencies that receive requests

Q: I have had a long-running battle with the county’s Community Development Agency on them altering Tax Assessor real estate records in order to approve an out-of-proportion large new house construction. CDA rules dictate new houses have to be average to the neighborhood. What CDA did was inflate the neighborhood average size, the part that is taxed, to make their project appear average. It took my California Public Records Act requests to expose some of their doing, but they are now refusing to provide any more. I have submitted requests to the County Administrator and Board of Supervisors. The county

Q: I have been conducting academic research in the “Zodiac Killer” case from the late 1960s and early 1970s. As part of my research, I have made several requests for police files and records from that time in relation to that case. However, I have found the local law enforcement to be uncooperative and often uncommunicative. In a number of my public records requests, they have used legal semantics and a vague interpretation of the California Public Records Act to stonewall my attempts at finding information. At this point, I fear a retaliatory lawsuit if I continue to pursue these

Q: We believe that one of our city council members has been using her personal emails, text messages and Facebook to discuss city-related business and spread rumors, false information to local residents in order to sway public opinion and silence public record requests. It is our belief that she is specifically choosing to use her personal email when having these discussions in order to circumvent the ability to have these discussions of city business with a sitting city council member fall into the public domain. How do we successfully, if we can submit a PRA to access these emails and

SUBMITTED | APRIL 15, 2020 Q: Across California and in my backyard developers are putting in plans, and cities have been starting public comment time clocks without the public’s ability to assemble and easily read the documents. This is especially true for those whoa re disabled, without internet access or who don’t have the skill to load and read hundreds of pages of small print documents and drawings on the internet. Per the 2015 census, homeownership over age of 55 is more than the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s in total. The same for homeowners over 65. However many cities in

SUBMITTED | APRIL 20, 2020 Q: I am writing on behalf of many people in my community who believe that county government is violating the COVID-19 shelter-in-place directives of California Gov. Newsom and the local county Health officer, and the intent of the Brown Act. We seek any help, resources, or pressure you can provide to remedy the problem, as quickly as possible. Many of us have requested in writing and in phone-in comments that the county stop all nonessential planning review until the COVID-19 SIPs are lifted. The county has ignored these complaints stating they are “in compliance” with