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Showing 31 - 40 of 124 results

  • Latest News

    Advocacy Blog

    Pricing the Public Out of Public Records 

    […] requesters for the direct costs of duplication, typically cents a page for copies. And there are circumstances when agencies can impose fees for producing or compiling certain electronic records, though the California Supreme Court has put guardrails on that. The county’s fee regime, however, went beyond that and relied on a state law outside of […]

    May 11, 2023

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    City misses CPRA request deadlines “due to staff vacancies”?

    My friend and I first requested financial records for two affordable housing projects receiving government subsidies on August 19. The City responded on August 27 informing us that due to staff vacancies they could not fulfill our request, and that they would provide a status update by October 1. On September 4, we responded to the […]

    October 12, 2015

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Agency claims my CPRA requests via email are “not public records act request”

    In response to an emailed request for public records, the local agency responded that my "series of emails were not a public records act request." In turn, they withheld the requested information. Of course, it could be that I've been not asking for the right thing in the appropriate way?  I've been requesting information […]

    March 30, 2012

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Fees assessed for electronic data

    I’m trying to obtain records for the LA United School District’s spending for 2010 in digital format, but the LA USD Office of the General Counsel is asking for 25 cents per page to send the digital information to us. They’ve explained that this is based on the usual fee rate for pages that […]

    January 12, 2012

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    How long are routine County surveillance records archived?

    […] footage from the wrong incident. The data that indicates the date and time of the footage was left out, perhaps intentionally. I am still attempting to retrieve the proper footage to pursue my case. Do you know how long California Counties archive records from police dash-cam footage? How would I go about pursuing this information?

    May 6, 2016

  • Latest News

    Blog

    Wanted by the FBI: Journalists’ phone records showing calls to and from confidential sources.

    […] a phone company or ISP information about their customers. On the say so of FBI higher-ups alone, the FBI can now demand "toll billing records" and " electronic communications transactional records" for any "person or entity." National Security Letters are not subject to a warrant requirement or other judicial supervision. Requested phone records must […]

    June 2, 2009

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA Police Records

    Are police notes following an auto accident public records?

    […] any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics." Govt. Code § 7920.530(a).  A "writing" is "any handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, […]

    March 6, 2025

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act CPRA

    Text-Messaging Public Records

    […] 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 […]

    June 14, 2009

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act CPRA

    Applicability of the Public Records Act to Private Text Messages

    […] in the 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 […]

    June 14, 2009