This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on June 3, 2010.
Good news — or, just one of those “gosh, finally” moments: After waiting for more than eight months, the office of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders finally released public records to San Diego News Network. To be exact, it has been eight months and 17 days.
The request, filed on Sept. 15, 2009, asked for correspondence between a former employee (Anna Daneggar) in the city of San Diego’s business office and employees of consulting company Grant Thornton.
After a series of e-mails, phone calls and one letter from legal counselor Terry Francke of Californians Aware — a nonprofit organization devoted to upholding the First Amendment — Sanders’ office released the records Wednesday.
According to the city’s Administrative Regulation of Public Records, San Diego seeks to comply with the California Public Records Act. The Act requires that requests must be replied to by government officials within 10 days. There is, however, no consequence for government officials should they not abide by the state law.
The city’s regulation also notes that “Department Heads are responsible for determining whether a City record should be released….” In this case, spokesperson Darren Pudgil said the mayor’s office took the lead role because “the city’s communications staff serves as the media’s one-stop shop for information about the city, facilitating requests for facts, interviews, statements or public records.”
This has been the case for years, he said.
So why did it take the mayor’s office eight months and 17 days to fulfill this request? Pudgil didn’t respond to my questions but to be fair, the documents came in a big box that weighed about 25 pounds.
In the past, SDNN also filed a request for or e-mails, memos, and other correspondence related to the preparation of the FY 2010-11 Five Year Forecast between the CFO, COO and Deputy Chief for Legislative and Community Affairs. The request was filed on Sept. 25, 2009 and was fulfilled on Nov. 2, 2009 by the Mayor’s Office. In total, 12 pages of correspondence was released with the city’s five year outlook released on Oct. 1, 2009.
The records — which we’ll review — were requested after we became interested in the relationship between the city, which hired a former Grant Thornton employee who then later resigned, and the company itself who was hired to assist San Diego implement its managed competition program, which has yet to take full-force.
Check out past stories on our inquiry and we’ll let you know in the coming days what the documents we’ve been waiting months for entail.
Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.