Asked & Answered

Q: My County installed a drainage system designed to flood my property. After two small claims suit losses I wrote a complaint to the Engineer Board. Subsequently, the Engineer Board ruled in favor of the County Engineer. I am seeking legal services to help me obtain the County Engineer’s submission to the Board. A: It appears the California Engineer Board is a “state or local agency” subject to the California Public Records Act (PRA), so

Q: I am a journalist that covers Capitol politics. This year, my request for Capitol press credentials from the Capitol Correspondents Association of California (CCAC) was denied. Their reasoning was this: one of my publishers also has a political consulting business – the CCAC board believes payments to him violate CCAC bylaws. I am in no way affiliated with the political consulting business, however they are leveraging this connection to inhibit my journalistic access. Is

Q: A recent student survey was conducted by my community college’s general emailing service. Can I send a CPRA request form to the community college to receive the results of the survey? A: The Public Records Act (PRA) applies to “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency,” so it should cover the community college.  Govt. Code § 6252(e).  Such

Q: I was refused access to government emails and correspondence because the records were determined to be exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act (recognized under the public interest balancing exemption provided by Government Code section 6255). Does this also refuse my right to access the time and date of the email correspondence? A: Under the California Public Records Act (“PRA”), public records are presumed to be open to the public and must be disclosed

Q: I recently submitted comments for discussion at a City Planning Commission meeting. In accordance with the established procedure, I submitted 3 pages of comments before the onset of the meeting. During the meeting my comments were overlooked – the Planning Director claimed they lacked relevance to the agenda item, even though they were directly pertinent to the discussion. Does this incident qualify as a violation of the Brown Act? [su_button url=”https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/legal-hotline” target=”blank” style=”flat” background=”#0eb4f6″