Governor's office agrees to make public records more accessible
Responding to requests from newspaper publishers and First Amendment advocates,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to make public records more widely
available to those who seek them.
In an April 26 letter to the California Newspaper Publishers Association,
Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Peter Siggins, said the governor would
require state agencies to seek executive approval before denying access to
public records. In the past, agencies have relied heavily on a provision in the
state legal code, Section 6255, allowing them to withhold documents if the
public interest is "better served" by nondisclosure.
Siggins' letter came in response to a request from the CNPA and the California
First Amendment Coalition that he vigorously enforce the principles of
Proposition 59, the ballot initiative passed by voters last November that
established a constitutional right of access to public meetings and records.
In light of voters' overwhelming support for the measure — it passed by 83
percent of the vote — the organizations urged Schwarzenegger to "send an
unequivocal message to public servants at all levels of government that Prop 59
means what it says and that you will hold public employees accountable for its
enforcement." They made several specific requests, most notably that he issue an
executive order directing state agencies to "broadly construe" state access laws
and narrowly construe exemptions to those laws.
In his reply, Siggins said the governor did not believe an executive order was
necessary but that he agreed with many of the principles the organizations had
outlined in their letter.
"Consistent with those principles," Siggins wrote, "we have directed state
agencies to give careful attention to the limits on statuary exemptions to the
(California Public Records) Act and to seek executive approval from our office
before withholding access to public records."
Peter Scheer, Executive Director of the First Amendment Coalition, praised
Schwarzenegger's action.
"It's a very creative and potentially promising way to curb government's use of
an often-abused exemption under the Public Records Act," Scheer said.
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