CalAware Today

Judge Orders Release of County Retirees' Benefits

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Modesto Bee and two other petitioners have won their lawsuit to force the Stanislaus County Employees’ Retirement Association to release information on which retirees are receiving the most generous pensions, reports Ken Carlson.

Norwegians' Personal Wealth Open for All to See

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- For those who think that disclosure of what California's government workers are paid—name by name—is a troubling invasion of privacy, San Francisco open government watchdog Kimo Crossman points out an Associated Press report of a much more radical sunshine policy in the law of Norway.

Stem Cell Research Data May Not Be Disclosed

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- A subcommittee of the board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)—the state's stem cell research agency— today unanimously approved a $300,000 economic impact study of the agency's work by a firm that is expected to “execute a vibrant and aggressive strategy” supporting CIRM, but in a manner not all that transparent, notes the California Stem Cell Report.

Draft: Access to Courts' Housekeeping Records

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- You have until October 29 to let the California court system know, in writing, what you think of its proposed new rules on public access to its administrative records; some version will go into effect January 1.

O.C. Register's Owner in Bankruptcy: Shhhh . . .

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Mary Ann Milbourn, reporting for the Orange County Register, says the newspaper's parent corporation, Freedom Communications Inc., "is throwing up roadblocks in its bankruptcy case by designating more than 1 million documents as confidential, including a Dodgers baseball game schedule and poetry," according to the unsecured creditors committee in a court filing in Delaware Friday.

FBI Ordered to Release More from Its Lennon File

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Jonathan Wiener, a U.C. Irvine history professor, scored a recent victory when Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi ruled that the FBI must release to him 10 pages of documents gathered from its investigation in the early 1970s of Beatle John Lennon, reports Ben Ritter for New University, the UCI campus newspaper.

District Wants to Fire Aide for Being Informative

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Peralta Community College District trustees in Oakland were to decide Tuesday night whether to fire an employee who fellow administrators claim gave a newspaper public information that embarrassed Chancellor Elihu Harris, report Matt Krupnick and Thomas Peele in the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek.

More Gun Crime Data Sought by Firearms Lobby

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Gun fanciers in California have joined the ranks of those advocating more public access to federally-collected data about the weapons used to commit crime, reports gun violence fighter Paul Helmke in the Huffington Post.

Watchdog to Watchdog: Ask Me No Questions . . .

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Inspector General of the Federal Reserve can't tell an inquiring Congressman where the money went. But laudably, both officials are very civil in the colloquy.

State's Workforce Awaits a Rate-Your-Boss Site

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- "For state workers who’ve ever dreamed of taking revenge on a bad boss — or wished to do something nice for a particularly good one — there’s a new web site that will give you the opportunity to do just that. Well, not you: State workers in California will have to wait," reports Malcolm Maclachlan for Capitol Weekly.

Political Watchdog Keeps Posting Warning Letters

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Members of the state's political watchdog agency rejected calls yesterday to immediately suspend the publication of its warning letters on the Internet, reports Andrew McIntosh for the Sacramento Bee.

County Won't Name Its $100K-plus Pensioners

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Sacramento County is willing to reveal that its highest-pensioned retiree is compensated at the rate of almost $727 per day, Monday through Friday.  But it won't say who that is, or reveal any amounts linked to names or former positions, reports Robert Lewis for the Sacramento Bee.

Assembly Passes Bill to Open Campus Auxiliaries

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- On a 76-0 vote, the State Assembly has approved legislation to ensure access to records of nonprofit entities serving the state’s public higher education institutions – the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), and the California Community Colleges, reports the bill's author, Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo).

Paper Sues to Get County Retirees' Pension Data

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Modesto Bee is seeking a court order to compel the Stanislaus County Employees' Retirement Association (StanCERA) to disclose records on the most lucrative pensions of public service retirees, the newspaper reports.

Site Shows Big Public Pay in the SF Bay Area

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Bay Area News Group, comprising most dailies and many weeklies in the greater San Francisco Bay area, has launched an online database of most state and local public employee salaries and other compensation in the region. Guess what: the biggest pay is mainly in health care management. But even in that category, there's a real standout.

Ex-Sunshine Lawyer Gets Public Record Backup

PUBLIC RECORDS -- A former staff lawyer for the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, beset by personal problems and clashing with police for the third time this year, had his side of an incident that led him to be tased by two officers backed up by . . . a publicly released police surveillance video.

Editorial: A Police Shakeup That Needs Explaining

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Herald in Monterey says in an editorial, "Before it's over, don't be surprised if the apparent suspension of Seaside's police chief, a deputy police chief and two police officers helps make the case for loosening California's extreme restrictions on the public release of information about investigations into alleged law enforcement misconduct."

SF Mayor Continues Secrecy about His Security

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- For someone with his eyes so clearly on the Governor's office, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom seems to have no concern for the impression he is leaving of indifference to secrecy about government spending.  As noted by Marisa Lagos in the San Francisco Chronicle's City Insider blog,

Money Spent on "Grassroots" Pressure Still Hidden

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Lobbyists have to register their activities and expenses with Congress, but well-funded "grassroots" firms don’t — a fact that frustrates watchdog groups, reports Jim Snyder for The Hill.

One County That Isn't Revealing Top Pensions

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The Stanislaus County Employees' Retirement Association has refused to release records about public service employees receiving the most lucrative pensions, reports Ken Carlson in the Modesto Bee.

Report: Secrecy Buries Deadly Medical Errors

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Experts estimate that 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors each year, report Cathleen F. Crowley and Eric Nalder in the San Francisco Chronicle, and one of the main contributing causes is medical and governmental secrecy.

Riverside PD Sued for Records on Immigrants

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- A day laborer support group has sued the Riverside Police Department for records about the agency's arrests of undocumented immigrants as well as correspondence with the U.S. Border Patrol, reports Sonja Bjelland of the Press-Enterprise.

Secrecy Lobbying Ban Ignored by San Francisco

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Despite a provision in its Sunshine Ordinance forbidding spending to support lobbying for more secrecy in state law, San Francisco's representatives in Sacramento won passage of a bill that keeps confidential the photos taken by city cameras of vehicles parked in transit-only lanes, reports Joe Eskenazi for SF Weekly.

Judge Bars County from Destroying E-mails

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- A judge has ordered Riverside County not to destroy a variety of email messages that are more than 45 days old—a purging practice strongly opposed in a lawsuit brought by a union representing 6,000 county employees, reports the Desert Sun in Palm Springs.

Courts Sneak Secrecy Language into Budget Bill

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- A budget trailer bill just passed lists several items of local trial court management information that must be made public, but the list enfolds a poison pill recognizing, for the first time in California legislation, the legitimacy of a controversial secrecy principle.

Federal Court Records Access: Still Pay-to-Play

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- The federal courts make serious money by keeping online public access to their case files a pay-to-play proposition, and don't want to give it up—despite freelance efforts to end their monopoly and a nudge from a senator to start complying with a 2002 act of Congress.

Gates 911 Caller Left Dangling in the Wind

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- This is what can happen when police needlessly release only scraps of information rather than the actual records bearing on a controversial incident—until the predictable ignorance-based speculation forces an about-face.

Oakland Cops Withholding Records on Massacre

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- Four months after four of Oakland's Finest were gunned down, their department is still sitting on records that might show why two highly trained SWAT sergeants died as they hunted for a gunman who had already murdered two motorcycle officers, writes columnist Tom Peele for the Bay Area News Group.

Police Department Cuts Grieving Mother No Slack

PUBLIC INFORMATION --  "Every last detail of Matthew Elder's final years is located inside a binder the size of a dictionary—from his diagnosis with schizophrenia at 19 to his suicide on the Caltrain tracks at 23, hours after being released from jail," reports Mike Rosenberg for the San Mato County Times.

$70K Payout Buys Silence of Lawmaker's Staffer

PUBLIC INFORMATION -- State Senate officials have secretly approved a $70,000 legal settlement that prohibits a staffer who accused a former colleague of harassment from going public with the charges, reports Patrick McGreevy for the Los Angeles Times.