FAC

A&A: Minutes of City Council meetings don’t tell whole story

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

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A&A: Does the CPRA cover private entities that do work for government?

 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

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A&A: Can a public board limit comments to residents in their jurisdiction?

Q: Can a public board limit who can make comments during public comments to only members who live in their jurisdiction? During a recent community meeting held by our local public sewer/water district, there was a portion of time to comment on the plans they were discussing. They stated that only residents who live within their jurisdiction could make comments. Can they legally limit who can make comments during public comments in that way? They also required everyone

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Records request fight costs NJ town $542k

Raritan Borough, New Jersey resisted turning over payroll records in machine readable format despite losing court rulings and now a special master says it should pay the Gannet newspapers that fought for the records more than a half million dollars for their legal costs. Read more at MyCentralNewJersey    

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A&A: Can a news photographer be threatened with arrest while covering a protest?

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

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