Asked & Answered

Q: A group of cizens allege the city is wrongly leaving out copies of correspondence the city received related to items on its agenda and powerpoint presentations related to agenda items. The council offers a limited number of copies of this information at the city clerk’s desk on the night of the meeting but it is not reflected in the minutes or available anywhere after the meeting’s conclusion. What is the law regarding this?  A: The

 Q: I am a reporter  working on a story about a recent dog shooting by a police officer although animal control officers say they had the situation under control.  Reports were filed by both Humane Society animal control officers on  the scene when the dog was tasered and shot by the officer.  I understand one of the reports clearly calls into question the necessity of the shooting, but my request for the documents was denied

Q: As a newspaper photographer, I was covering a protest over Cal Trans clearing trees alongside the Highway just outside of town.   Then a CHP officer drove up and approached me saying ”you have to leave the area.” Then I asked the officer if I could walk just to the side and take a photo of the tree cutting activity behind them and was refused access again. I was wearing my press pass on

Q: Riverside Superior Court changes fees to search and acquire court records through its website. This wasn’t always the case. Several years ago this service was provided for free, and that seems to still be the case in other counties. For the past three budget years, these fees have meant additional annual revenue for the court of roughly $600,000. I’m wondering if there’s a way to determine if these fees are “reasonable” under the law

Q: My records request for the documents showing how much money the county has spent on a current and ongoing lawsuit.   The County states that the information revealing the total money spent is privileged because the case is in active litigation. It would appear to me that no privileged information concerning the case would be jeopardized by providing the total amount of taxpayer money spent on the this case.  Is the County required to provide