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  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Is A Letter From A Water District Lawyer A City Attorney Public?

    […] to modify it. The District's lawyer wrote a letter to the city attorney, attaching a draft civil complaint, asking for a set of changes, threatening to sue otherwise. "Settlement" meetings were in closed session. Now that a new contract has been agreed to, is the first letter a public record? How can we get it?

    December 7, 2018

  • Latest News

    California Reporting Project Wins 2019 FAC Award for Police Accountability Coverage

    […] original stories, detailing police use-of-force and instances of misconduct.Representatives of the project will be recognized on Thursday at a ceremony at the California Press Foundation’s Annual Winter Meeting in San Francisco. The award comes with a $1,000 prize.For the project, journalists submitted hundreds of California Public Records Act requests and have obtained files from […]

    December 2, 2019

  • Latest News

    Blog

    To take the sleaze out of judicial elections, ethics rules should bar lawyers who contribute money to judges from practicing before those judges

    […] would affect judicial candidates more or less equally. Without funds to buy expensive mailers and advertising, they would be forced to campaign the old fashioned way: by meeting with voters in small gatherings and describing their qualifications. To those who would resist this reform, it is worth asking the question, what do lawyers expect […]

    June 3, 2009

  • Latest News

    FAC News Press Release

    FAC to Mentor Journalists for National Boot Camp

    […] rights and protest rights. Past workshops have been for groups pursuing law enforcement records, organizations training their members to hold local government accountable, and others. The First Amendment Coalition also offers a suite of published guides on police transparency laws, and using the California Public Records Act and open meetings laws to hold government accountable.

    November 22, 2023

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act

    May I request to have agendas mailed to me?

    […] Brown Act provides that: "ny person may request that a copy of the agenda, or a copy of all the documents constituting the agenda packet, of any meeting of a legislative body be mailed to that person. . . . Upon receipt of the written request, the legislative body or its designee shall cause […]

    October 15, 2013

  • Latest News

    Blog

    No more slaps on the wrist: Public Spankings for violators of open-government laws

    […] A source of great frustration to advocates of government openness and accountability is the absence of any meaningful enforcement of California’s open government laws. Although in theory serial violators of the Brown Act and the Public Records Act may face prosecution for their offenses, the reality is that they face no real sanction at […]

    June 2, 2009

  • Asked and Answered

    First Amendment Protest Rights

    I Believe My University Has Infringed on My Right to Free Speech. How Can I Fight Back?

    […] public email list (a thousand or so people associated with the campaign). The intention of this email was for those in the student campaign to upcoming regents' meetings and speak out against the use of police violence against protesting students, low wages, and mass firings. The use of a public forum to critique university […]

    April 21, 2022

  • Latest News

    Blog

    California agencies have no business claiming copyright protection for public records

    […] intellectual property paid for with tax dollars. In 2015, the mayor of Inglewood claimed copyright infringement to silence a citizen who used video excerpts from city council meetings to criticize the mayor and his policies. A federal district judge threw out the city’s lawsuit, ordering Inglewood not only to desist in trying to censor […]

    June 22, 2016

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act CPRA Newsgathering

    Police dispatch calls

    […] for challenging this under California law. The public records act only covers writings, not oral communications. Government Code section 6252(d). And such police communications would not constitute meetings that are a required to be open to the public under the Brown Act. I'm not currently aware of this case arising elsewhere in the US; […]

    June 14, 2009