PUBLIC INFORMATION: Ex-principal's Settlement Withheld in Vallejo

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Dec 2, 2008 | Legal Issue: Public Information | 0 |

The Vallejo Times-Herald reports that a former school principal's lawsuit against the school district has been settled, but terms of the agreement are being kept from the public despite legal precedent for disclosure.

The Times-Herald had made a public records request for a list of all expenditures stemming from the lawsuit filed in May to be released, including terms of the settlement agreement.
    District officials said Monday they would not honor the request unless Rollins' attorney agrees.
    "We are not ignoring the Public Records Act," Hodge said. "We believe we are in compliance with the law. That law only applies when you are not talking about confidential personnel actions."
    Attorney and sunshine law expert Terry Francke, however, questions that reasoning. . . (T)he courts have interpreted the Public Records Act as requiring disclosure of such settlements, he said.

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

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.

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