Q: While walking across a parking lot at an elementary school site, I noticed a car that had been parked in the same place for several minutes. There were two 8 x 11 inched sized ”political messages” affixed to the back bumper of the car: 1 on each side of, and close to, the license plate. The car was parked within 15 ft of a preschool classroom and directly across from a row of elementary
Q: My city is claiming “deliberative process privilege” in redacting the planning director appointment calendar. I’m wondering if there have been any successful challenges to the deliberative process privilege since Schwartznegger’s refusal to turn over appt calendars for two aides citing this privilege? A: It has been argued, and a state appellate court has rejected, that Prop. 59 was intended to eliminate the deliberative process privilege. See Sutter’s Place Inc. v. Superior Court, 161 Cal.
Q: Are city councils required to have minutes? A: The Brown Act, the law that governs the extent to which local agencies such as city councils must conduct their meetings in a manner open to the public, does not require that a city council take minutes. The Brown Act only acknowledges that a minute book may kept for closed sessions and that a legislative body may require another legislative body over which it has appointed
Q: I filed a code violation complaint in 2005 because of hoarding and abandoned vehicles on a neighbor’s easement. Many things have transpired since but I cannot get an answer to why the County did not simply warn the owner; clean up and bill him as muni. code states & as building inspector has told me is normally the case. This is a mentally ill individual who has many restraining orders against him by County
Q: My newspaper has had difficulty accessing City emails via public records requests. Our city has a written policy of only making available email from the city server (city manager, city finance director, etc.) for a 30 day time period from the date of the submission of the public record request. PRA requests are repeatedly denied for documents (specifically email) outside the 30-day window even though that email still exists on city servers and are