CalAware supports or opposes key bills introduced in Sacramento strengthening or weakening the open government rights of inquiring citizens and the protections for speakers, journalists and whistleblowers.
A successful CalAware growth fund would make it possible to broaden and deepen that activism with increased public awareness and involvement.
LITIGATION
CalAware not only provides support, through participation in amicus curiae briefs, for plaintiffs or defendants waging court battles for open government and free expression, but files such cases in its own name when necessary to enforce such rights and protections.
A successful CalAware growth fund would make it possible to increase the use of court actions—and cautionary letters and demands, which can be just as effective—in correcting those who do not respect the laws requiring open government or free speech and press.
PHONE AND EMAIL SUPPORT
CalAware responds to hundreds of calls and emails per year providing inquirers with answers to questions (summarized in our Knowledge Base) about open meeting and public records laws and practices, free speech rights and protections for effective journalism and whistleblowing.
A successful CalAware growth fund would help make this service better known and more available to more people who need it throughout the state.
Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers.
Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution.
Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.
