As of January 1, questions about open government law or First Amendment rights from CalAware members—by phone or email— will continue to be answered by phone or email. Non-members can get free responses only by posting their questions on our message board, the CalAware Community Forum at http://www.calaware.net/default.asp. Membership information is at https://www.calaware.org/support/join.php.
Health Care Reform Includes Data for Consumers
Who knew "Obamacare" had some sunshine provisions to help people make informed decisions about where and how to spend their health care dollars—x-raying hospitals and other providers to permit comparisons of not only prices but readmissions, infections and doctors' and nurses' performance?
The Los Angeles Times, in a lead Sunday editorial, has called for the opening of juvenile court dependency hearings, where decisions are made as to who is appropriate to provide parental care for a neglected or abused child. A champion for fathers' custodial rights promptly seconded the motion.
A local transportation authority board is revisiting its requirement that citizens who address it at meetings must fill out cards with their names and contact information, after CalAware criticized the rule as a Brown Act violation.
From the statement of Thomas Blanton, Director of the National Security Archives, George Washington University, at yesterday's hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on " The Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Implications of Wikileaks:"
In a decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Santa Cruz city council gadfly has won another chance to that show his fleeting, wordless Nazi salute was not disruptive to a council meeting, and that his ouster therefore violated his First Amendment rights.
A judge has refused to issue a gag order sought by a district attorney because he could find no threat to a fair trial for an accused shopping mall arsonist; the DA's request for the order had led city officials to hold off releasing their postmortem on the response of police and firefighters to the blaze—a report now due for release shortly.
A quarter a page is not an unusual sum set by California public agencies as a charge for making copies of public records requested by the public; quite the contrary. But CalAware's Richard McKee is demanding that local agencies justify that nice round number in terms of their own actual costs.
The Brown Act may allow a city council to evaluate the performance of its contract city attorney in closed session, but it doesn't permit the council to go behind closed doors on its own to discuss disputed billings by the attorney, says CalAware's Richard McKee.
Why would a city's report on the performance of its police and firefighters in responding to an arson fire in a shopping mall—one that went from a modest blaze to a huge one when the building's sprinklers were turned off—be so damaging to the suspect's fair trial rights that city officials and employees must be gagged?
What do Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), Viggo Mortensen, and Noam Chomsky have in common? They and more than 2500 others (as of 10 PM PDT tonight) have gone public in opposing the U.S. Government's condemnation and efforts to sabotage Wikileaks. Paul's objections are reported here; the others' names are on the open online petition here.
After 10 years of discussion and 24 drafts, the residents of Berkeley will finally be able to vote on a proposed new transparency magna carta. Tonight the city council was scheduled to vote to place the “Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance,” a citizens’ proposal to make Berkeleycity government more open, on the November 2012 ballot.
Officials' Cell Calls, Texting at Meetings Faulted
By Anne Lowe
Cellphone and texting device use by members of local government bodies during public meetings could possibly violate the Brown Act, the Voice of OC reports.
The Bay Area News Group has posted 2009 salary information for all judges and thousands of courtroom employees in the state. But foot-dragging by nine counties' courts, including Los Angeles, suggests that many judges are unhappy with the new transparency rules imposed on them from above last year by the California Judicial Council.
Californians Aware (CalAware) filed a lawsuit in Contra Costa County Superior Court today, seeking an order prohibiting the Contra Costa Community College District from continuing its violation of the California Public Records Act (CPRA) by charging a fee for copies of district records that is well above the “direct cost of duplication,” the maximum fee the CPRA allows.
Newspapers have been hard-hit by technological advances and an uncertain economy. What happens to the journalists—many who are seasoned veterans—when the jobs disappear? For some it means continuing investigative digging and reporting—on the government payroll.
A Public Records Act request for district attorney’s reports on all officer-involved shootings in Alameda County was denied by District Attorney Nancy O’Malley last month, closing the door on access to this once-public document.
Californians Aware (CalAware) has advised the state associations representing most local government agencies that their members may be subject to short-notice lawsuits for some common violations of the open meeting law.
The La Puente City Council has received a demand for corrective action from Californians Aware Vice President Richard McKee in connection with a closed session described as concerning "pending litigation" in which council members voted on two items.
American Canyon City Council's frequent critic, Marianne Young, says she may pursue legal options after her comments to the council were cut off at a recent meeting.
