Asked & Answered

A&A: City avoiding disclosure of personal email

Q: A council member has claimed in public meetings and in the press to have received email regarding a particular issue. Our PRA requesting those email have been rejected by the city because they do not have email accounts for council members. However on the city website the link to contact council members is the council member’s personal email account. If the city is listing the personal email as the contact, then shouldn’t email from

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A&A: Fees assessed for electronic data

Q: I’m trying to obtain records for the LA United School District’s spending for 2010 in digital format, but the LA USD Office of the General Counsel is asking for 25 cents per page to send the digital information to us. They’ve explained that this is based on the usual fee rate for pages that are photocopied, but as we aren’t asking for any physical copies this rate seems inappropriate. I’ve looked at California’s public

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A&A: I ask for transparency; they ask me to resign

Q: I have concerns that my school District has violated the Brown Act.  When the school board made our interim Superintendent a permanent Superintendent without any public input because it wasn’t properly agendized. I am also concerned that a committee I serve on has been deemed a closed door confidential meeting per the Brown Act. I am an unpaid, parent volunteer on the committee and one of several stakeholders (parents, community, retired teacher, district employees

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A&A: Sheriff refuses access to complaint

Q: Two years ago, I filed a citizens complaint with the Sheriff’s Department. This complaint was against the sheriff and his deputies. I have requested copies of all documents compiled in their internal investigation and they have informed me that documents concerning personnel are exempt. I just want copies of my complaint plus any correspondence that is related to my complaint. I lost my file in this matter and am trying to recoup. I have

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A&A: Police deny request for 911 tape

Q: My CPRA request to review the 911 recording/transcript of a 2003 death was denied by the LAPD. While the cause of death was determined to be a knife wound the coroner declined to rule on whether the incident was a suicide or homicide. Prior to my formal request, the police refused to discuss the case citing its ”ongoing nature.” My formal request to review the 911 call for service was denied because it was

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