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A&A: Personal privacy exemption for public college dean

FAC October 17, 2013

Q: I am reporting on a public college’s dean who appears to spend a lot of university money on luxurious travel. I requested phone bills from her publicly funded-phone because I heard she often calls the kennel where she boards her dog from international locales from that phone. I got the phone bills but all the phone numbers were redacted citing California Government Code §6254(c); Cal. Civil Code §1798.42. I am looking for some guidance

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A&A: May I request to have agendas mailed to me?

FAC October 15, 2013

Q: Can I request to have an agenda mailed to me at the time of posting?  And what is the time frame? A: The Brown Act provides that: “[a]ny person may request that a copy of the agenda, or a copy of all the documents constituting the agenda packet, of any meeting of a legislative body be mailed to that person. . . . Upon receipt of the written request, the legislative body or its

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Free speech: Online mugshot industry charged with practicing extortion

FAC October 8, 2013

The New York Times reported that a slew of online firms have sprung up to allow the public easy access to mug shots of arrested citizens. It sounds like an important public service to provide public information except that the firms charge a fee to remove the mugshot. (The New York Times, October 5, 2013, by David Segal) For months Google has been looking for a way to deal with mug shot sites mainly by

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1st Amendment links: must-read news you might have missed this week

FAC August 23, 2013

Secrets led the news this week: Secret keepers like CalPers pensioners to secret leakers like David Miranda, and Private Manning, whose stories dominated the headlines this week and often on matters having little to do with state secrets.  Andrew Bacevich brings us back to the matter at hand in his eloquent essay asking us to consider to whom those state secrets really belong.   All that and more in FAC’s Friday roundup: 1st Amendment links: “Truth

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A&A: Request denied for fire district celebration guest list

FAC August 16, 2013

A small fire district board voted to approve paying up to $2,500 for district firefighters, graduates of the reserve academy and their guests (and apparently the Board members and their guests) to attend an ”Appreciation Dinner” at a rather expensive venue. At a previous district board meeting (February 2013), the fire chief told the board that he was going to pay $1,100 to rent the venue for the dinner ”because he’s allowed to spend up

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