Asked & Answered

Accessing a public employee’s resume Q: A California state university employee committed resume fraud in securing job appointment. The chancellor’s HR office conducted an investigation and concluded the employee was guilty.  We heard rumors that the employee was disciplined by the university.  My questions are: 1. Is the disciplinary action on the employee by the university public record? 2. Is the employee’s resume public record? 3. Is the conclusion of chancellor’s investigation public record? If

Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of a Common Interest Development Q: Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of a Common Interest Development covered under the Davis Stirling Act are public records, available at the county clerk’s office.  Can copies of Covenants Conditions and Restrictions be posted on a web site? A: Although we cannot provide specific legal advice on this situation, as a general matter, information from public records can be freely disseminated.  See Florida Star v. B.

Releasing settlement information on a public employee’s termination Q: I am seeking information from two public agencies related to an employee who was separated from both agencies. One agency released a settlement document with the employee in which she agrees to never again seek to accept employment with the county. The county has sought to demote her over and incident or incidents. She took an early retirement instead. The settlement document notes the demotion was

Trade secrets in public records Q: In early May 2007, the media revealed that the city manager had entered into a written confidentiality agreement with representatives of a major sports team.  The parties to the agreement deemed in the document that certain information to be disclosed to the City would be “trade secrets.”  Further, it was reported that such “trade secrets” would be revealed to the City Council at a closed session on May 8,

Charging for research and the CPRA Q: I submitted a Public Records Act Request with the air district, asking for copies of different kinds of permit applications. They came back to us stating that they copied about 50 pages and cost would be $435. Most of this cost was because of the five hours staff spent searching for the materials. I found this high cost to be quite ridiculous and then saw on your website