Asked & Answered

A&A: Blogger ‘s identity exposed, and legal threats made against her

Q: I am writing today for guidance regarding my rights as a blogger. I am the author of a cosmetics complaints blog and creator and one of the admins of the complaints Facebook Page. The blog and page initially were started in an effort to obtain a refund from a cosmetics company due to sanitation questions. The company also had a recall in December of last year. The blog and page have slowly become more

Read More »

A&A: Can the city manager demand political cartoons removed from senior center?

Q: Recently the city manager sent an e-mail to the president of the senior center regarding complaints  his office had received about the local newspaper’s political cartoons being posted on the wall inside the senior center. While the senior center is owned by the city, a local nonprofit pays rent on the building, maintains it and operates it. When asked, the City Manager responded that this is not a violation of the Brown Act because

Read More »

A&A: Can I access emails of city employees using personal emails for city business?

Q: Our newspaper made an public records request for ”all emails to and from city employees” regarding a new parking meter system the city is using.  Our intention is to see whether employees have written emails stating that the system is not working properly. In response, the city attorney exempted an unspecified number of emails citing a ’deliberative process’ exemption in CCC 6252(d), 6254(a) and (k) and 6255. He cited cases including Rogers v. Superior

Read More »

A&A: Closed door meetings benefitted labor union at cost of public tidelands

Q: After holding closed door negotiations with a public coalition that included the local union, the Port of San Diego announced  a hotel development deal that included a Project Labor Agreement with the union.  The development will be build on public tidelands, which sacrifices the Port Master Plan-designated parkland.  Were the extensive secret labor negotiations legal? A: There are two basic steps in determining whether a meeting is subject to the Brown Act. First, a

Read More »

A&A: Accessing county’s payments to a doctor now under arrest for molestation

Q: I am a journalist and victims advocate. I wanted to know about whether it was possible to get records of payments made by all  County agencies–including the District Attorney’s office–to a child psychiatrist. The psychiatrist was arrested for molesting hundreds of boys and was under contract to the courts for four decades. We have reason to believe the DA’s office hired him as well, which would make their prosecution of him a conflict of

Read More »