firstamendment

SF Unified School District Records Q: Can you please direct me to the correct California Public Records Act form I need to use to obtain records from the San Francisco Unified School District?Do I also need to submit a US FOIA request as well or is a CPRA request sufficient? Are there applicable administrative remedies that need to be exhausted, ie, the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance laws, before I can file a CPRA request? A:

Enforcement of the CPRA Q: Who enforces the California Public Records Act?  I have been seeking information from a regional services district, but they refuse to provide me with the information I am seeking which would provide evidence of their misrepresentation of facts and directly and repeatedly lying to me.  They say that the information (granted water permit applications) can be withheld from me because they contain names and addresses, but I only seek to

Text-Messaging Public Records Q: I read in the SF Examiner that Mayor Newsom has refused to turn over Hawaii-based communications related to his conversations re: the Busan oil spill.  He claims that the phone records and text messages are not public record because he used his personal iPhone and has not submitted a request for reimbursement from the City. I have checked the Sunshine Law, Brown Act and CA Public Records Act and can find

Jail Files of Prisoner Suicide Q: I want to investigate the suicide of man in the county jail. Can I get access to his files at the public defender and district attorney offices now that he is dead? Or are they still exempt from the CPRA? A: Under the California Public Records Act, Government Code section 6250 et seq., records maintained by public agencies are presumptively available for public inspection and copying unless one of

Accessing Police Evidence Q: I was attacked by police. They grabbed me forcibly and bruised my arms and wrist and sprained 3 discs in my back for which I am under a doctor’s care. I was not their suspect. Minutes before this assault I called 9-1-1 asking to speak to the Watch Commander and was refused this right. The DA is saying the call doesn’t exist, even though I showed proof from my phone bill.