California officials ignore public’s right to information, promises for transparency
California’s Supreme Court has famously declared, “Openness in government is essential to the functioning of a democracy.”
Sadly, many of the state’s bureaucrats, from the governor on down to city and county officials, seem determined to defy that command.
To be sure, the hostility toward open government in our state is more subtle than the brand practiced by former President Trump. Trump branded the press the “enemy of the people” and did his best to trash the Freedom of Information Act. And some of his supporters, like congressman Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, have sought to silence critics with numerous lawsuits.
California officials, including Gov. Newsom, are far more subtle, and most officials profess to believe in transparency. But while they talk the talk, they don’t walk the walk, and their instinct is often to deny Public Records Act requests.
As we mark National Sunshine Week March 14-20, there are many recent examples of state and local agencies defying the command of openness and invoking flimsy claims of exemption from the Public Records Act. Some examples:
▪ Newsom claimed the so-called “deliberative process privilege” allowed him to avoid disclosing his office’s emails about the infamous “French Laundry” dinner with lobbyist Jason Kinney.
▪ The California Government Operations Agency claimed it could withhold emails about how it responded to questions from a journalist about the ouster of former Public Utilities Commission Executive Director Alice Stebbins.
▪ Newsom resisted disclosing a contract between the state and a company which was supposed to provide masks to stop the coronavirus.
▪ Both the city of Fresno and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office dragged their feet in responding to requests for police records after a new law was passed mandating greater openness about police shootings and other uses of force.
The problem, at least in California, isn’t bad laws. The California Supreme Court has issued a series of strong pro-transparency rulings in the past 15 years, ordering the disclosure of named public employees’ salaries and holding that when government officials communicate on their so-called “private” electronic devices, their texts and emails must be disclosed when they deal with public business. But compliance with the high court’s 2017 ruling in that case has been spotty.
Openness has perhaps never been more important. A $1.9 trillion stimulus is on the way. While the aid to individuals, especially the unemployed, and state and local governments will be welcome, the public must be able to have access to records that show how that enormous amount of public money is spent. The Trump administration fought a losing battle against disclosure of the names and loan amounts of businesses which took part in the $521 billion Paycheck Protection Program. It’s essential that the Biden administration take a different approach to disclosure of records under FOIA, but it’s too early to tell whether the new president will do so, and in fact even now the Small Business Administration is still fighting disclosure of PPP records.
The California Supreme Court has explained that access to records enables the public and press to uncover “corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.” Scandals in Trump’s White House with former lobbyists running the agencies which supposedly regulated their former clients evidenced that point. Only a vigorous press and educated public can ensure a working democracy. Those are words to live by during National Sunshine Week.