The Hanford City Council has so far not released an anonymous packet of documents to the public and may never. The documents make allegations against city leaders which the council discussed in closed meetings.

Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publisher Association, said the council may be on safe ground in denying public access to the documents but should consider if someone who intends to sue had supplied the documents. In that case disclosure is required under the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db

From the Hanford Sentinel, February 1, 2012, by Eiji Yamashita.

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An editorial in the Los Angeles Times says the board of supervisors for Los Angeles County “displays its contempt for the public” by closing the door before discussing such vital issues as the shift of convicts from state facilities to the county.

The Times argues that the mere wish to speak frankly does not allow a public agency to close its doors and the exemption cited for closing the door on the convict issue was passed in the 1970s to allow a government body to discuss how to keep protesters from denying citizens and workers access to public buildings. -db

From an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, January 31, 2012.

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The Rio School District has over half of the 36 complaints about violations of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, according to a report by the district attorney’s office.

The office said it might have to take legal action against the district unless they paid greater attention to the issue, perhaps providing training for board members. -db

From the Ventura County Star, January 25, 2012, by Cheri Carlson.

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A new House bill to block public access to publicly-funded research is nothing new. Efforts have been underway since 2008 to roll back the law that requires public access.

The book publishing industry backs the bill claiming that the current policy of posting public funded findings online undercuts their business.

From The Scientist, January 9, 2012, by Bob Grant.

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A Visalia resident discovered that without public hearing last October, the Visalia City Council approved a $50,000 expense account for its newly appointed Elections Task Force.

The city claims it feared a lawsuit so was justified in acting in closed session, but no one was threatening to sue over the creation of the task force. -db

From an editorial in the Visalia Times-Delta, January 9, 2012.

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The lawsuit over closed lunch meetings of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors is going to the California Supreme Court.

The suit centered on 30 closed lunch meetings in 2009 during which at least a majority of the supervisors were present. The supervisors claimed they never discussed county business during the lunches. -db

From the Visalia Times-Delta, January 10, 2012, written by Staff reports.

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California Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco intends to introduce a number of bills in 2012 to give the public greater access to the workings of their government.

The bills include SB 1000 keeping the California Public Utilities Commission from withholding information about their regulation of PG&E responsible for a recent catastropic fire and SB 1001 that would improve the state’s campaign finance and lobbying database. The database has crashed several times in the past and needs updating. -db

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 3, 2012, by Steven T. Jones.

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The increasing numbers of closed door sessions conducted by the Stockton City Council has prompted open government advocates to protest the practice. Under a threat of bankruptcy, the council has met in closed meetings three times for every two open meetings.

The council may meet in closed session to discuss certain financial matters, but in doing so they close the public out of the discussion and deprive them of a chance to participate in crucial decisions, say the council’s critics. -db

From the Stockton Record, December 27, 2011, by Scott Smith.

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Under amendments to the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, government agencies are now required to disclose more details about items under consideration at meetings. The amendments will go into effect, January 1 of 2012.

The amendments also require agencies to provide notice in writing to the media of special meetings and notice by telephone in the case of emergency meetings. -db

From the Ridgecrest Daily Independent, December 20, 2011, by Stephanie Forshee.

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A recent study found that under the Obama administration, in 2010 federal agencies used exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 33 percent more than they did under George W. Bush in 2008.

Watchdog groups are now trying to hold Obama to his pledge to make his administration the most transparent and accountable in history. -db

From Federal Times, December 15, 2011, by Sean Reilly.

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The quest for national security after 9/11 has resulted in a number of secret agencies, Congressional committees, courts and even laws argues the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU claims that these practices deprive lawmakers and the public of information needed to check abuses and to make policy. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, December 19, 2011.

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An ex-school board member alleged that the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District board violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting act by not allowing public comments while conducting public interviews to fill a vacant seat on the board.

The board has agreed to repeat the meeting to satisfy the Brown Act. -db

From the Lodi News-Sentinel, December 13, 2011, by Jennifer Bonnett.

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In a case brought by the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Sun and the Sacramento Bee, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ordered the California Assembly to release budget records under the California Public Records Act.

Lawyers for the Assembly did not participate in oral arguments before the judge last week. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2011, by Joe Piasecki.

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A California research group says that government agencies trying to cope with budget shortfalls are resorting to increasing fees for copies of public documents in violation of the state’s Public Records Act.

The act prohibits charges for retrieving public records to the costs of duplication. But Sacramento County charges $13 for page 1 and $3 for each page thereafter. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, December 1, 2011.

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If you’re worried about natural gas pipelines running near your home or business, prepare for a long battle to get key information from California’s Public Utilities Commission. Under a 60-year-old law, vast numbers of documents — including regulatory reports and safety studies — are secret, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

What’s more, PG&E often has the last word on what the public will be able to see.

A Chronicle survey shows that most states routinely make such documents available to the public.

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An expert in open government law challenged the Barstow School Board contention that they had not violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, in failing to report a vote out of closed session.

The school board was considering the resignation of the school superintendent. -db

From the Desert Dispatch, November 21, 2011. by Katie Lucia.

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As trials of accused terrorists begin at Guantanamo Bay, the Defense Department released new regulations designed to create better access to court filings.

Journalists have objected to the long review processes for obtaining court filings without which they were lost when covering the trials. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 22, 2011, by Kirsten Berg.

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A federal district judge ruled that the Justice Department does not have to provide a Muslim civil rights group with FBI investigative guidelines.

The judge held that revealing the guidelines would compromise the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations and prosecutions. -db

From  The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 15, 2011, by J.C. Derrick.

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Local governments are allowed to conduct public business behind closed doors to discuss a limited range of issues. Carolyn Schuk provides a primer on the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, in the Santa Clara Weekly. -db

From a commentary in the Santa Clara Weekly, November 17, 2011, by Carolyn Schuk.

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The Justice Department has refused a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for an important legal opinon on the use of “exigent letters,” a method of requesting information that includes telephone company records.

In refusing to disclose the legal opinion, the DOJ cited national security concerns. -db

From Politico, November 11, 2011, by Josh Gerstein.

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U.S. Supreme Court Justices rationalize their refusal to allow cameras in their courtroom by citing the Court’s unique standing but never say why this exceptionalism justifies the camera ban, writes Tony Mauro for The National Law Journal.

Mauro believes that the Justice’s life-long tenure, part of their unique standing, makes it even more advantageous to allow the public a direct view of their conduct. -db

From a commentary in The National Law Journal, November 14, 2011, by Tony Mauro.

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A federal judge ruled that the FBI could withhold data from its terrorism investigations from a New York Times investigative reporter.

The judge said The New York Times had not rebutted the FBI’s statement that they had fulfilled requests made under the Freedom of Information Act except for that under FOIA exemption. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, November 10, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld.

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Saying they had already exceeded disclosure requirements on budget records, the California Legislature and Assembly said the records of correspondence about the disbursement of taxpayer money were exempt from disclosure.

The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee requested the records to investigate  a legislator’s claim that the Assembly Speaker was cutting his spending allowance because he voted against the state budget. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, November 9, 2011, by William Dotinga.

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The Obama administration reversed its policy to block access to information on malpractice settlements and discipline taken against doctors but set some conditions that journalists do not like.

The administration said that information from the National Practitioner Data Bank could not be reposted or used with other information to identify a doctor. The administration had taken down the data bank because a Kansas reporter had used the information to track down a doctor with a record of malpractice but never disciplined by the state. -db

From the Federal Times, November 10, 2011, by Sarah Chacko.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to adopt a procedural rule to limit the number of civil cases under seal. The Court wants to rely on a new Judicial Conference policy encouraging federal judges to limit the number of sealed cases.

The Reporter Committee for Freedom of the Press had suggested the rule citing the lack of uniform standards used by lower courts for sealing cases from public view. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 8, 2011, by Kirsten Berg.

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Bloomberg editors Max Berley and Tobin Harshaw were unimpressed with NSA’s declassification of 50,000 pages of historic documents and the agency’s boast that the act demonstrated the Obama administration’s commitment to openness.

The editors said one of the documents released was already long in the public domain and that the release of the documents was a pathetic diversion from the administration’s poor record on open government. -db

From a commentary for Bloomberg Businessweek, November 8, 2011, by Editors Max Berley and Tobin Harshaw.

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The Oakland Police Department has refused to release records about the October 25 police action against Occupy Oakland demonstrators. The ACLU is trying to determine if the department adhered to its own policies on the use of force.

The ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild had made a public records request for the records. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, November 8, 2011, by Linda Lye.

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The Orange County Sanitation District admitted to violating the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, when it voted on pay raises for 17 managers and 18 “confidential” workers behind closed doors. They will conduct a revote.

Because the workers are not represented by a bargaining group, the public has the right to discuss the raises and witness the vote. -db

From the Orange County Register, November 7, 2011, by Tony Saavedra.

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The 5th District Court of Appeals dismissed an open government suit by an open government advocate challenging closed lunch meetings held for morale-building purposes by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.

The court said that there was no relief since the supervisors had stopped holding the meetings alleged to be violations of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db

From the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, November 7, 2011, by Kenneth Ofgang.

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Governor Jerry Brown struck a significant blow to transparency in California state government when he shut down www.transparency.ca.gov saying that the information could be found on other sites or obtained through the California Open Records Act.

Critics said the shut down makes it more difficult and time consuming to track government sending including the travel expense claims of agency officials and governor office employees. -db

From the Sacramento Bee, November 2, 2011, by David Siders.

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The White House is balking on honoring the subpoena from House Republicans to turn over records of the Solyndra loan guarantee. The administration claimed the subpoena was an intrusion on “Executive Branch interests.” -db

From USA Today, November 4, 2011 by Jessica Retig.

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Reacting to pressure from legislators and open government advocates, the Department of Justice withdrew a proposal to allow government agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests with false denials. The proposal would have allowed them to deny that records exist when they actually did. -db

From a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, November 3, 2011.

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A federal judge ruled that an  immigrant rights group could obtain an internal memo from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) concerning the legal justification for the Secure Communities deportation program.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the group sued five federal agencies for the memo. -d

From the Courthouse News Service, October 26, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld.

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The Electronic Freedom Foundation sued the Department of Justice for its failure to release documents detailing its interpretation and use of Section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. The section allows the FBI to obtain a court order for “any tangible thing” related to a terrorism investigation.

The EFF claims the government has been misusing the Patriot Act to investigate citizens without their knowledge. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 27, 2011, by Maria Dinzeo.

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A Delaware open government coalition sued in federal court over a 2009 state law that gives the Chancery Court license to arbitrate business disputes between consenting parties. The Chancery Court set up procedures that make the hearings confidential and not part of the public record.

The coalition wants the court to declare the law and rules unconstitutional and the defendants to desist from conducting hearings in secret. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 26, 2011, by Sean Kelly.

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Video recordings of last year’s same-sex marriage trial in California will remain under seal pending further review, a federal appeals court has decided.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said it must determine whether release of the videos would serve the public interest without compromising the safety of witnesses for Prop. 8, the state initiative that banned same-sex marriage.

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A Riverside man claims the bank that employed him fired him for taking an interest in local politics on his own time by attending a public meeting of the City Council to ask about pay of public officials.

The former bank vice president said in the meeting he had not made any accusations but said that the City Council and city manager could increase public confidence by disclosing their compensation including benefits and other perks. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 24, 2011, by Bonnie Barron.

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With two vacancies on the five-member board, the Palm Drive Hospital board is facing allegations that it violated California’s open meeting laws in meetings involving two directors. Seventy-two hour notice was not provided for meetings to review proposals to join with other hospitals. -db

From The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, October 20, 201, by Bob Norberg.

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The Justice Department is proposing a rule change to allow disclosure of transcripts from grand jury proceedings at least 30 years old if it would not affect a living witness or investigative target.

Attorney General Eric Holder is also suggesting that historically significant transcripts of at least 75 years old be released without court review. -db

From The New York Times, October 19, 2011, by Charlie Savage.

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Some argue that if government classifiers were required to justify their classifications with clear, precise written explanation, there would be less information consigned to secrecy, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News.

As of now, officials get away with saying “it is secret because it’s secret,” but Aftergood thinks that it is not enough to require explanation, that establishing a review process would do more to achieve greater transparency. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, October 6, 2011, by Steven Aftergood.

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