Invoking Prop 59 to access public records

CalAware Weekly News provides the following suggestions on using Prop 59 to break open an intransigent public agency, in order to obtain records.

Prop 59 doesn't change any of the rules about what is open or closed. It requires courts (and by extension, public officials generally) to interpret affirmative access rights provided by laws like the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act broadly. Correspondingly it requires the narrow interpretation of exceptions and exemptions under these laws.

Accordingly, when you see a public agency appearing to stretch an exception or exemption denying access to fit information or circumstances that are not spelled out in the statue being relied on, that is the time to invoke Proposition 59.