Asked & Answered

Q: I’m a newspaper reporter working on a story on a local man charged in a nationally covered rape case, and we have reason to believe he was being recruited by major college sports programs while on trial. I have the name of the schools, which are public institutions, and we want to know the best way of retrieving documents from coaches who were in contact with him. A: It sounds like you will want to submit public records requests to

Q: I’m investigating a lax building code and the permitting procedures of my city’s Building Department, for several specific examples. I have examples, where there is ongoing construction and periodic remodeling done, without original permits or follow up ! The remodeling is incremental but , the accumulation, of ad-on, over the years is substantial! The request was sent to the City Clerk who was identified as the CPRA spoke person. There is a good indication of an under the table “pay-off.”

Q: Does the Brown Act allow a publicly elected school board to hold closed session discussion under Government Code 54957 (Public Employee Appointment/Employment) and 54957.6 (Labor Negotiations) regarding the appointment and pay structure of a Director of Curriculum to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. Both positions are administrative positions that report directly to the Superintendent of the District and do not report to, or have direct supervision by the board. The pay is set

Q: I have been seeking release of daily crime logs through the Police Department, preferably the day they are issued. The log is maintained by a patrol officer for 24-hour periods between 4 a.m. and 4 a.m. and through CPRA request have successfully obtained past logs electronically in .doc or .pdf format. However, the department Public Information Officer (PIO )has refused to provide the daily log when requested claiming they need to be double-checked for accuracy

Q:  One of my reporters put in a PRA request with a law enforcement agency. It has asked to see the documents we have obtained so that it can know what key words to search. I don’t think we should do that, but the office is saying we won’t get the documents we need unless we honor their request. Another reporter filed a PRA with the same law enforcement agency. She received some documents, but there are