Public Records Disclose . . .

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Mar 10, 2009 | Legal Issue: Public Information | 0 |

PUBLIC INFORMATION —

that for years, San Jose police
never told anyone when fingerprint technicians could not agree about
whether a suspect's prints matched those taken from the crime scene, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
that the state's Department of General Services spent $750,000 last summer on a new system to preserve the electronic documents on its computer networks so officials could identify and retrieve them for lawsuits and record requests, but eight months later, it still hasn't put the "eDiscovery system" into service, reports the Sacramento Bee.
that during the intense state budget negotiations last year, Democratic lawmakers
"stole away to an elegant wine-country lodge where the gourmet meals,
rooms and cocktails" were provided by lobbyists for a trio of intereststrial lawyers, carpenters and firefighterswith much at
stake in the Capitol, and that soon thereafter, "their agendas advanced in Sacramento," reports the Los Angeles Times.

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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