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Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Grounds for Cease & Desist under the Brown Act

[…] a specific government decision or action, must first attempt to resolve the matter through an elaborate settlement procedure set forth in Government Code § 54960.2. The deadlines for filing a cease and desist letter with the government entity, as well as the government’s obligations in responding to such a complaint, are set forth in […]

March 31, 2016
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Should I be able to get meta data of emails and calendars under the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance or Public Records Act?

[…] the regular Public Records Act, and a violation of both laws’ requirement that records be provided in the format they are held (if so requested) and that exemptions be justified. Should I be able to get San Francisco public agencies and/or California public agencies in general to provide me emails in the native electronic […]

April 1, 2021
Latest News

Cases

FAC sues LA council over destroyed public records

[…] new lawsuit filed by the First Amendment Coalition against Los Angeles highlights local governments’ all-too-common---and illegal---practice of destroying public records. The suit, filed Thursday in Superior Court for Los Angeles County, focuses on documents that went missing when a termed-out council member, Tom LaBonge, left office in 2015. Thousands of documents about city business---"public […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
August 26, 2016
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA

Community College Senate, Listservs, and Public Record

[…] faculty have the right to privacy in these issues? There is a "listserv" among the faculty that was started a few years ago to be a forum for open communication between professional colleagues relating to academic and pedagogical issues surrounding the faculty. Currently, around 80 faculty out of the 400 employed are subscribed to […]

June 14, 2009
Posts

Brown signs SB 1300, but calls on Legislature to fix public access issues

[…] law does not authorize petroleum refineries to collect attorney’s fees from individuals or organizations seeking those records." Hancock, in a letter to Jerry Brown, acknowledged the need for "additional language" to "avoid any misinterpretation" and said it is her "intent to introduce legislation next session" to do that. The problematic amendments to SB 1300 […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
October 17, 2014
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Is a school caretakers’s security camera subject to CPRA?

[…] records. Gov’t Code § 6253.1. Additionally, if the agency refuses to provide a certain record it must cite any exemptions it is claiming and describe how the exemption applies to the records. Gov’t Code § 6253(c). The challenge with any PRA request is ensuring that it is broad enough to capture all the records […]

September 10, 2016
Latest News

Blog Cases

Victory: California Appeal Court Orders Records Unsealed

[…] make the required statutory findings, but because less restrictive means exist to protect respondent’s private medical information and the identity of third parties," Justice Victoria Chavez wrote for the panel. As part of FAC's long-standing commitment to enforcing the public's right to know, it teamed up with EFF and First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
April 15, 2020
Asked and Answered

CPRA

City avoiding disclosure of personal email

[…] press to have received email regarding a particular issue. Our PRA requesting those email have been rejected by the city because they do not have email accounts for council members. However on the city website the link to contact council members is the council member’s personal email account. If the city is listing the […]

January 13, 2012
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Planning a Closed Session to Allow Confidential Documents

For a lawsuit between two city board members and the city board, which is run as a corporation, the parties have reached an agreement to allow the board members to access documents in closed session so that it will be covered under the Brown Act. Can a government entity plan a session to […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA First Amendment

The CPRA and court records

[…] seek to access).Nevertheless, you could request the transcript of the California Supreme Court proceedings on the grounds that they are court records that must be made available for inspection and copying by the public under the First Amendment and California law.Your submission does not state whether the proceedings were criminal or civil in nature. […]

June 14, 2009