The state Assembly, in an 80-0 vote, approved bill that would require state agencies to post more data on their web sites, including conflict of interest statements, litigation settlement documents and written denials of access to records, according to the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Legislative Bulletin. Assembly Bill 2927, carried by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would also correct weaknesses in the California Public Records Act. However, the Assembly removed a provision that would subject public employees to $100-a-day fines, for which they would be personally liable, if they made bad faith decisions to withhold public records. The bill still allows penalties for agencies that violate the law and caps penalties at $10,000. CalAware is working on amendments, to be taken in the Senate, to add an alternative dispute resolution system that would require the attorney general’s office to, upon request, review a public records request that has been denied to determine if the rejection is supported by the law.
Assembly OKs improvements to records law
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