Search

Categories

Total Results

No Record Found

View All Results
DONATE

FAC

A&A: Are city council subcommittees Brown Act-exempt?

FAC September 21, 2012

Q: I am trying to get some skeleton data on a new crop of Brown Act-exempt City Council subcommittees. I requested the subcommittees’ mission statements, which I assumed were set out prior to commencement. Some have had four meetings thus far, and one as many as seven meetings. I have not received a response regarding the composition and purpose of the subcommittees with purported need to await an absent city manager’s writing up of, or coming

Read More »

A&A: Who can request documents under the CPRA?

FAC September 19, 2012

Q: Does the California Public Records Act require residency in California to access documents or are they available to visitors from out of state?  Does the CPRA provide a request process?  If so, is it mandatory? A: Your first question asks whether governmental agencies in California need comply with the Public Records act when the request comes form a non-citizen of the state. The answer is “yes.” An agency’s obligation to follow the law does not

Read More »

A&A:City says building plans can be viewed but not copied

FAC September 19, 2012

Q: The city attorney is citing the Health and Safety Code Section 19851 to support the city’s denial of copying building plans submitted to the city and on the planning commission agenda and council agenda but not yet approved. He says that until building plans are approved, they are the architect’s property and can be viewed, but cannot be copied. Is this the common interpretation of Health and Safety Code Section 19851 We had wanted

Read More »

Attend SPJ’s Digital Security for Journalists workshop next week in SF

FAC September 14, 2012

Digital technology has so completely revolutionized reporting, editing and news dissemination that a reporter’s smartphone now doubles as his newsroom. Of course, these gadgets are neither foolproof nor risk-free as Wired journalist Mat Honan found out when security flaws at Apple and Amazon led to hackers wiping out everything his computer. In response to Honan’s wipe out and a growing number of similar security fails, the NorCal Society of Professional Journalists will host a Digital

Read More »

Free speech: Kentucky Bar Association fails to shut down criticism

FAC August 28, 2012

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the Kentucky Bar Association violated one of its members first amendment rights for threatening to sanction the attorney for criticizing the state Legislative Ethics Commission.  The judge ordered the KBA to pay $191,588 in the case. Read the story in the Louisville Courier-Journal: Free Speech fight costs Kentucky Bar Association $191.000.00  

Read More »