FAC’s latest lawsuit—a Public Records Act suit against Sonoma County—-has ended successfully, with the county disclosing a complete, unredacted copy of a contract to promote tourism in connection with the Super Bowl.
In denying PRA requests for the contract submitted by local news media and FAC, the county said the contract was exempt because it contained trade secrets. Further, the county said the contract—-between the county tourist bureau and the Host Committee for the Super Bowl—- contained so many trade secrets that it couldn’t be released in redacted form.
We were skeptical that a contract involving a government agency, and providing opportunities for tourism promotion, could be chock full of the kind of sensitive business and financial information constituting “trade secrets.”
Now that the contract is public, we’re still skeptical. We’ve read the contract several times and we still don’t see any trade secrets. But you be the judge. The full contract is posted immediately below.
FAC’s lawsuit was resolved through settlement. In addition to turning over the complete contract, the county agreed to pay FAC’s legal fees and costs in the amount of approximately $10,300. FAC was represented in the Sonoma case by San Francisco attorney Karl Olson.
https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sonoma-County-SB50-Sponsorship-agreement.pdf