Special districts throughout the state often receive what appear to be a “mass” California Public Records Act (“CPRA,” Cal. Gov. Code §§ 6250 et seq.) request from a private company via mail or e-mail. These requests, from groups with names such as “American Transparency” or “Transparent California,” typically seek employee names and salary information. While receiving these CPRA requests can be frustrating, special districts are obligated to respond.
As a preliminary matter, it is important to note that if your district has developed a process with your district legal counsel to review and respond to CPRA requests, you should continue engaging your counsel for guidance on how to best respond to any CPRA request.
Any person or group, including a for-profit business, is entitled to access public records under the CPRA. This also means that access to the records is not restricted to a person or entity that lives in the district; they can live in a different district, city, county or state and have access to district records under the CPRA. Furthermore, the purpose of the CPRA request is irrelevant, and a district cannot restrict disclosure of a public record or condition the disclosure on the requestor stating their purpose for the request. The district must comply with any CPRA request that adequately describes a record kept by the district which is not subject to an exemption from disclosure.
Most importantly, the CPRA applies to existing records. Districts are under no obligation to create a new document, fill out a checklist, or put a record into a different format. This means that a district is only obligated to make records available that are responsive to a request, not to create documents or to compile a list that otherwise does not exist.
Nonetheless, sometimes it may save the district time and money to prepare a document with the responsive information instead of providing copies of other records that are responsive but also include other private or unnecessary information that must be redacted. When a district creates a record instead of producing an existing record, it should seek guidance from legal counsel before doing so if possible, and note to the requestor that this was done as a reasonable accommodation and clarify that the district was under no obligation to do so.
Although public employees generally do not have an expectation of privacy in their names, salary information, and dates of employment, they are entitled to privacy rights that protect other sensitive personal information such as their home address, Social Security number, or medical or financial information. Another example where an employee’s name may be withheld is when they have a court-issued restraining order protecting them. The district must also ensure that no other exemptions from disclosure apply to the records sought, including, but not limited to: preliminary drafts, pending litigation records, certain personnel records, or records protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Ideally, the person responding on behalf of the district will review the CPRA request, determine if any existing records are responsive to the request, review and redact the document as necessary, and then provide a copy of the request, responsive record, and draft response to the district’s legal counsel for their review and comment before responding to the requestor.