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Showing 21 - 30 of 1843 results

Asked and Answered

CPRA

Is the list of employees taking voluntary buyouts a public document?

I am a reporter covering the public district hospital. I want to know if a list of 74 employees who accepted voluntary buyouts is a public document. I requested this list from the hospital's PR person, and she said she would provide it only on condition that I promise not to publish the names. […]

August 27, 2010
Asked and Answered

First Amendment Social Media

Can a public official delete users’ comments and block them from the official’s social media account?

I would like to bring to your attention a concern regarding the social media practices of a local elected official. Recently, I posted a comment on the official’s Instagram account, which the official uses for city-related matters, including event announcements and community updates. Unfortunately, my comment was removed, and I was subsequently blocked from […]

March 6, 2025
Asked and Answered

CPRA

Is a Salary/Wage Review Really A “Trade Secret”?

Our District Hospital contracted with a company to do a salary/wage and benefit review of hospital employees. They are meeting in closed session and discussing this report as a "trade secret." I have requested a copy of this report under the CPRA and was refused based on the trade secret exemption. Their response was, […]

July 2, 2010
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

Public right to to speak denied at school board meetings

I need help defending the public's right to speak at open meetings. At school board meetings, board members will not let members of the public comment for the established time of three minutes. School district staff speaks for three minutes and then the public gets three minutes. Often times the chair does not allow […]

November 2, 2010
Latest News

Blog

A stunning end to the media’s 20-year losing streak in high court access cases.

[…] that affirms the vital link between public access to information and democratic self-government. In the IFPTE case the Contra Costa Times newspaper had requested records showing the salaries, by name, of all Oakland public employees making more than $100,000 a year. Although the city of Oakland had released this information in past years, it […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 3, 2009
Asked and Answered

Bagley-Keene Act Brown Act

Closed meeting and the Brown Act

I'm thinking about writing a letter of cure/correct regarding a pattern of what appear to be Brown Act Violations. The district acted to correct the June 19 violation. According to a story we published previewing a meeting this past Tuesday, July 3: "After closed session on Tuesday, the board is scheduled to convene in […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act First Amendment

New rule places unreasonable time restraints on public comments

The new rule one of the county supervisors has been threatening to make formal, requires constituent speakers to aggregate all remarks on as many as a dozen or more separate items into one three minute slot isolated from other speakers and staff who may have commentary on individual items. This requires the speaker to […]

March 5, 2012
Asked and Answered

Brown Act CPRA First Amendment

Parent’s email complaint entered as a public comment by school site council

I am a member of our School Site Council. During a recent public comment period, our chairperson read aloud an email that contained a detailed complaint (disclosing the names of a staff member and the emailer’s child – neither of whom were present). Is it the case that we are obligated under the Brown […]

May 3, 2016
Asked and Answered

CPRA

CPRA request on pension investments was denied for the “public good”

I am seeking some clarification regarding the use of Government Code Section 6255(a) by the San Diego County Employees Retirement System and am wondering if there is any case law that shows the use of this law is not being applied correctly. I have included the information below that the plan provided me. "...documents […]

May 16, 2012
Asked and Answered

First Amendment Social Media

Can the City ban negative online posting by public employees, officials?

I live in Tennessee, and my town recently adopted a social media policy that forbids any city employee, elected official, appointed official, vendor or volunteer from posting anything "negative" about the city on social media. Can you please take a look at this and determine if this is a violation of the First Amendment?

March 5, 2015