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Cases

Public Records

Sacramento Television Stations, Inc. v. Superior Court

[…] by disclosing only snippets of critical incident recordings or justify withholding the recordings by merely asserting an investigation is active, A.B. 748’s mandate of transparency would be eviscerated. The brief is joined by Californians Aware, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, The McClatchy Company, LLC, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
- Government Transparency and Accountability
January 11, 2025
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Costs soar for City Council meeting DVDs

I know that cities cannot charge for staff time when it comes to making photocopies in public records requests. Does this extend to DVDs as well? It appears we are being charged staff time, so DVDs now cost $18each. Previously I was able to get them free by bringing in a blank DVD disc, […]

September 5, 2011
Asked and Answered

Newsgathering

Can police videotape me in my home without consent?

[…] to be confined to the parties thereto."). (a) Every person who, intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication, by means of any electronic amplifying or recording device, eavesdrops upon or records the confidential communication, whether the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another […]

December 2, 2011
Asked and Answered

Newsgathering

Can police use hidden cameras to videotape the public without consent?

[…] to be confined to the parties thereto."). (a) Every person who, intentionally and without the consent of all parties to a confidential communication, by means of any electronic amplifying or recording device, eavesdrops upon or records the confidential communication, whether the communication is carried on among the parties in the presence of one another […]

October 26, 2011
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Are Power Point Presentations to Board of Healthcare District Public Records?

[…] not entirely clear whether a PowerPoint presentation that is displayed at a meeting has been "distributed" to the members if they did not receive a paper or electronic copy. But if the agency has a copy of the presentation, then there would seem to be no basis for it to refuse to allow you […]

February 22, 2018
Asked and Answered

CPRA

How Do I Determine What Records are Available Before Making CPRA Request?

I just want to know the types of records available for cell phone service providers in the California Lifeline program. I want this information so that I can craft a CPRA request that is as narrow as possible. I emailed the administrator of the California Lifeline program at the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) […]

November 28, 2018
Latest News

Blog

Government officials use personal email and texting to avoid public access laws. Why not use technology to enhance accountability instead of to subvert it?

[…] by representatives of unions and other special interests. The former San Bernardino County Assessor, who was arrested on drug charges and is under grand jury investigation, used electronic messaging on personal cell phones to direct his staff in partisan political activities, according to a report of an independent investigation commissioned by the county. The […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
August 22, 2009
Latest News

Blog

2007 Open Government Legislative Roundup: Some successes and some failures

[…] and presentation documents to be fully functional in a variety of applications, whereas documents for the current standard, Microsoft Office, are typically only fully functional in Microsoft Office. Advocates of the bill claimed it would reduce the costs of archiving electronic documents and would have improved access to public documents requested in an electronic format.
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 3, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA

CPRA fees and information in electronic form

[…] council members laptops to each other, especially during the periods of council meetings for the last two months, the city has responded thusly:Pursuant to the California Public Records Act Government Code 6253.9 b. 2 the following fees are associated with fulfilling your request: Contract Staff time to extract stored email ($45/hr x35 hrs) = […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Using CPRA to learn rules governing Resort Improvement District #1

[…] is subject to a few exceptions. Potentially applicable in your case is that upon request an agency is required to compile and extract information maintained in an electronic database. See Govt. Code section 6253.9. Note, however, that if computer programming is required for the compilation or extraction of data, the costs of programming can […]

July 22, 2013