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Showing 681 - 690 of 694 results

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act CPRA

    A Board member vs. public member rights under PRA

    I am an elected board member of my local Fire Protection District. I have requested information from our fire chief (e.g. audio/video recording of board meetings, copies of invoices) and I have been told that as a board member I must follow different rules then the public. I have been told I must make my […]

    March 23, 2016

  • Pages

    Resources

    The Legal Hotline gives users quick, free access to FAC’s lawyers for questions about access to public records and your right to attend government meetings in California; access to court documents and proceedings in California and federal courts; and First Amendment protections for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

    June 12, 2024

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act

    Foreign Nationals’ Open Government Rights

    No, the rights created by CA's access laws are not limited to citizens. Citizenship is irrelevant. Even foreign individuals and foreign corporations may assert the rights to open meetings (the Brown Act) and rights to public records (the California Public Records Act).

    June 14, 2009

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Help Needed In Requesting Documents from California Coastal Commission

    […] exemption. The CPRA exempts from disclosure preliminary drafts, notes or memos not normally retained in the ordinary course of business (Gov’t Code section 6254(a)). This exemption requires meeting three conditions: (1) it applies only to documents that are "pre-decisional," namely records that contribute to reaching some administrative or executive determination; (2) it applies only […]

    March 16, 2020

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Private attorney costs to public agencies and attorney-client privilege

    […] amount of the retainer agreement.  See Cal. Government Code section 54957.5(a) (records provided to a Board of Supervisors or other legislative body in preparation for a public meeting are public records that must be available to the public under the California Public Records Act); Cal. Government Code section 6253(a) (if an agency claims a […]

    June 14, 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

  • 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

  • Latest News

    Blog Cases

    FAC joins environmental access suit against Marin County

    […] an environmental group went to court, thus triggering the suspension of the ordinance. The poison pill, plus other language weakening the original draft, were inserted during closed-door meetings of a two-person subcommittee of Marin’s supervisors. The CPRA requests focus on the decisions of this subcommittee and the supervisors’ adoption of the proposed ordinance. The […]

    March 16, 2015