CalAware Today

But What If Big Collectives Had to Give Openly?

PUBLIC INFORMATION  -- Katie Connolly, blogging for Newsweek.com, tells us that today's corporate free speech decision by the U.S. Supreme Court "spells disaster for political transparency." Au contraire: It could motivate campaign finance reformers to turn to sunlight, as Justice Brandeis said, as the best disinfectant.

Web Watchdog to Monitor Yolo Justice System

FREE PRESS -- A local government watchdog website in Davis reports that it has spun off a more specialized web monitor to focus on the criminal justice system in the county, including the trial courts.

City Could Make Some 'Private' E-mails Public

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- "With iPhones and Blackberries becoming must-have accessories, San Jose is poised to approve a ground-breaking disclosure policy that would ensure elected leaders don't use those personal devices to skirt public-records laws," reports John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury News.

Iranian Regime Sifts Photos of Protesters Here

FREE PRESS -- The Orange County Register has discovered a troubling consequence of publishing what appears in its pages on the Internet: the visiting Iranian students it photographs protesting on local campuses against the regime back home are identified by the regime, which holds their families in its power.

Editorial: Who Voted to Let the Chancellor Go?

OPEN MEETINGS -- An editorial in the Contra Costa Times asks who voted which way in the recent decision of a community college district board not to renew the expiring contract of its chancellor,  discovered in repeated acts of pursuing his and friends' interests at public expense, which the editorial summarizes.

Lawmaker Faults Censorship by University Donors

FREE SPEECH/PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) today called on the administrators at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo to stop letting wealthy donors censor curriculum—a reported abuse he says might be disclosed if not deterred if a bill he is carrying on university foundation transparency were to become law.

Attorney's Exonerating Letter Gets Taken Apart

OPEN MEETINGS -- An attorney for the Garden Grove Unified School District has issued a letter advising the board that trustee Lan Quoc Nguyen did not violate the public-meetings law when he had brief discussions with two fellow trustees about who would nominate whom for board offices, minutes before the start of a regular board meeting last month, reports Deepa Bharath in the Orange County Register. But a critical blogger takes the attorney's letter apart.

Criminal Defendants Entitled to Open Voir Dire

OPEN COURTS -- Adam Liptak, writing in the New York Times, reports that the U.S. Supreme Court decided today in a case from Georgia that a criminal defendant's presumed fair trial rights under the Sixth Amendment—separate and apart from the rights of the press and public under the First Amendment—include a courtroom open to the public during jury selection.

Next Wednesday: Open Government Law Training

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- A High Desert watchdog group is welcoming the public to a free all-day intensive training session on the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act next Wednesday, January 27 in Yucca Valley, with presentations made by Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware.

Name the Best/Worst Public Meeting E-Agendas

OPEN MEETINGS -- The folks at the Modesto Bee plan to spark a little public interest in what's otherwise a pretty dreary subject: the language and other online approaches bureaucrats use to alert the community of the business to be discussed at impending public meetings.  Let them know your favorite worst agendaspeak—or best use of the Internet to highlight coming meetings—by tomorrow.

Self-Government by Petition: A Private Process?

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether the First Amendment requires that the names of people who sign ballot-initiative petitions be kept secret, reports Adam Liptak in the New York Times. California already exempts this information from disclosure under the Public Records Act, and the issue's complexities yield many observations.

This Is What It Takes to Keep the Public Aware

PUBLIC INFORMATION/FREE PRESS -- Anyone who thinks there's a journalistic substitute for the local newspaper and its resources and procedures needs to consider this project and what it says about the task of converting public records into public awareness of serious failings in society. Not all papers are this diligent, of course, but when they are, no other form comes close to their value.

Attorney: County Board Erred in Stifling Comment

FREE SPEECH -- A media law attorney says the president of the Alameda County Board of Education violated the state's open meeting law when she refused to let members of the public speak before the board voted last week to conditionally renew FAME Public Charter School's charter, reports Linh Tat in the Contra Costa Times.

Kerry Wants All Martin Luther King Jr. Files Open

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) proposes a bill in Congress to require that "all records relating to the life and death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. be located, reviewed, and released by a review board at the National Archives similar to those established for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and for Nazi war criminals," reports Bryan Bender in the Boston Globe.

Report: State's E-records Left to Vanish Wholesale

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- What good are public information access laws if the state is allowing its records—in electronic form—to simply disappear wholesale? Anthony Pignataro, reporting for CalWatchdog, says no one really has a handle on what's happening.

The Legal Case That Dare Not Show Its Face

OPEN COURTS -- By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court today made permanent its Monday order banning video coverage of the federal court Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco, ruling that the defenders of the ban on same-sex marriage would likely face "irreparable harm" if a video of the proceedings were made available for viewing in linked federal courtrooms around the nation.

McKee to College Board: End Closed Meetings

OPEN MEETINGS -- Richard McKee, President Emeritus of Calfornians Aware, today sent trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District a demand that it declare a long-running employee health benefits committee subject to the Brown Act and see to it that the committee opens its meetings to the public accordingly.

Bill Would Shield Charter School Students' Speech

FREE PRESS/FREE SPEECH -- A new bill by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) to extend protection for student expression to charter schools cleared its first test in the Senate Judiciary Committee today by a unanimous 5-0 vote.

Court: Coach's Retaliation Case Can Go to Trial

WHISTLEBLOWERS -- San Diego State University strength coach David Ohton’s almost six-year-old whistleblower retaliation suit against the university has been reinstated by the Court of Appeal a second time and appears to be finally headed for trial, reports Brent Schrotenboer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Vetoed Transparency, Whistleblower Bills Revived

OPEN GOVERNMENT/WHISTLEBLOWERS -- Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has reintroduced two bills vetoed last year by Governor Schwarzenegger, designed to bring greater transparency and accountability to the State’s public higher education institutions, Yee's office has announced.

First Court Records Suit Yields Swift Compliance

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- In the first reported lawsuit to obtain records of court administration brought under the public information access rules of the California Judicial Council effective January 1, an action filed last Tuesday by counsel for the Sacramento Valley Mirror resulted in an offer to release the information three days later.

Council's Special Meeting Ploy Violated Brown Act

OPEN MEETINGS -- "A Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Monday that the Los Angeles City Council violated the state's open meeting law by approving a 76,000-square-foot shopping center in South Los Angeles without giving the public sufficient advance notice," reports David Zahnhizer in the Los Angeles Times.

Governor, Legislators in Denial on Closed Lunch

OPEN MEETINGS -- Even as spokesmen for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders deny that the Governor's closed-door luncheon for the lawmakers at a private club after his State of the State address violated laws requiring open meetings of the legislature, the admitted facts make these protestations incredible.

President's First Year Gets a 'C' in Sunshine Goals

OPEN GOVERNMENT -- The Columbia Journalism Review gives President Obama a C average in accomplishment for his first year in office reflecting six areas of effort toward open government: reducing use of the state secrets privilege to scuttle lawsuits for violations of civil liberties, improvement of the Freedom of Information Act, release of federal data online, access to White House visitor records, enactment of a federal shield law for journalists, and reduction of the use of off-the-record background briefings.

Judge OKs Taping, YouTube Release of Prop 8 Trial

OPEN COURTS -- "Next week's trial in San Francisco of a lawsuit challenging the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California won't be televised live, but it will be videotaped for delayed Internet release on YouTube," reports Bob Egelko for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Governor Hosts Closed Luncheon with Lawmakers

OPEN MEETINGS -- Two days after refusing to let a majority of a city council meet in closed session with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger because of concerns for violation of the Brown Act, his staff defended his closed-door luncheon meeting to which all legislators were invited as simply a social occasion not governed by the lawmakers' own open meeting mandates.

Trustee Exits after Vote Deal That Passed Her over

OPEN MEETINGS -- "In a dramatic move supporting government transparency and accountability, Dr. KimOanh Nguyen Lam, trustee for the Garden Grove Unified School District, walked out of Tuesday evening’s board meeting over an alleged blatant violation of the Brown Act by her fellow board members" that denied her a nomination to a board officer's position, reports Chris Prevatt for TheLiberalOC.com.

Court: Closed Settlement Approach Was Unlawful

OPEN MEETINGS -- A community college board's all-day litigation settlement process that allegedly included the adverse party and her attorney negotiating with it in closed session and involved possible serial meeting shuttle conferences with a mediator violated the Brown Act, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District has ruled.

Governor Saves Council from Brown Act Violation

OPEN MEETINGS -- Three of the five members of the Costa Mesa City Council wanted to meet privately with Governor Schwarzenegger Monday, but concerned with even the appearance of a Brown Act violation, his office insisted that one of them sit out the closed-door conference while the others and city staff lobbied him—in vain—to drop plans to sell the Orange County fairgrounds. 

The New Tax on Invasion of Celebrities' Privacy

FREE PRESS -- AB 524 (Bass), the new amendment to California's Paparazzi Law that takes effect as of January 1, will not stop and will probably not even slow the most invasive and aggressive photographic pursuit of Hollywood celebrities. But it does effectively create a tax on the sale of the photos, split between local and state governments, without ever using the t-word.