- Something for Everyone:
- Complete List of Program Sessions
Asserting Your CPRA Rights to Government Records
Learn the ins and outs of access to public records under the California Public Records Act from media attorneys, journalists and citizen activists pushing the envelope on access. Also learn about this year's access battles from the warriors and their attorneys.
Duffy Carolan, Tim Crews, Richard McKee, Alonzo Wickers IV and Bob Christie
Duffy Carolan, a CFAC board member and author, is a partner at the San Francisco office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Carolan lectures on media law at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and specializes in media law, regularly advising and successfully representing various media entities on access issues.Bob Christie is the City Editor of The Bakersfield Californian, a mid-sized daily newspaper in the southern Central Valley. The Californian has been aggressively pursuing public records and court access issues for the past several years. Most recently, the paper sued Kern County and the city of Bakersfield under provisions of the California Public Records Act for refusing to provide exact salary and overtime figures for firefighters and law enforcement officers by name.
Tim Crews, a CFAC board member, is the owner, publisher and editor of The Sacramento Valley Mirror. Crews is a long-time proponent of access who often engages his local government in access issues and has successfully pursued self-represented litigation.
Richard McKee is the first citizen activist to be President of CFAC. McKee is a chemistry professor at Pasadena City College who has successfully sued a number of local government agencies to stop violations of open government law.
Alonzo Wickers IV is a partner at the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP who specializes in media law and regularly advises media clients on access issues. Wickers successfully represented the press in obtaining access to the state's controversial long-term electricity contracts, and he has won many other access battles in and out of court. He also teaches at USC's Annenberg School of Communication.
- SYMPOSIUM: TERRY FRANCKE
- CPRA: The Law, Court Decisions and Practical Application
A complete course on the California Public Records Act and how it is supposed to work for attorneys, journalists, civic activists and government officials. *Approved for 2.5 hours of MCLE credits for attorneys.
Terry Francke is CFAC's general counsel and is widely recognized as an expert on California open government law and First Amendment issues. Francke came to the Coalition in 1990 after serving as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association for ten years. He is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and graduated from McGeorge School of Law in 1979. Francke drafted the 1994 revisions to the Brown Act and is also the author of a model local government sunshine law that provides more government transparency than state law's minimum requirements. This model has been adopted in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Contra Costa County.
- SPOTLIGHT SESSION: LEE TIEN
- Domestic Surveillance after Sept. 11: Accountability Imperiled
Concern for "homeland security" after Sept. 11 has been fertile ground for increased domestic surveillance. The Patriot Act was only the first step.
The Transportation Security Administration is gearing up for "CAPPS II" (Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System); the FBI issued new surveillance guidelines that announce its intention to create a massive database for tracking potential terrorists; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a counter-terrorism "Total Information Awareness" system.
These systems, and others we may not know about, pit claims of "national security" against an open government's need for accountability. Has Congress done enough to hold the executive branch accountable? Does the law provide adequate accountability in court? How can we have open government and "more surveillance" if we don't know what the government is doing?Lee Tien is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in free speech law, including intersections with intellectual property law and privacy law. Before joining EFF, Lee was a sole practitioner specializing in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. Tien has published articles on children's sexuality and information technology, anonymity, surveillance, and the First Amendment status of publishing computer software.
The Right of Access to Criminal Trials With High Profile Defendants
A panel discussion of rights of access to criminal trials in cases with high profile defendants. Attorneys involved in the People v Westerfield trial will discuss secret court hearings, sealed pre-trial motions, search warrant records and speculative concerns about pre-trial publicity prejudice.
Guylyn Cummins is a partner of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, where she chairs the firm's First Amendment and Media Law Practice Group. She is an adjunct professor of media law at California Western School of Law and has written many articles on First Amendment issues. She regularly represents pro bono clients on various constitutional issues.
Guylyn Cummins is a partner of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, where she chairs the firm's First Amendment and Media Law Practice Group. She is an adjunct professor of media law at California Western School of Law and has written many articles on First Amendment issues. She regularly represents pro bono clients on various constitutional issues.
Katherine Flaherty is an attorney with the San Diego District Attorney's office.
Paul Krueger is Senior Producer for KNSD/NBC Channels 7/39 and a board member of The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego.
Mike Stutz is news director of KGTV/ABC in San Diego.
Laurie Hearn is the Metro Editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
- SPOTLIGHT SESSION: DAVID DILWORTH
- Model Meetings: What Does Real Public Participation Look Like?
A fun, interactive workshop about how to get quick results in increasing public participation in government. Topics include meeting locations, public notice, how agendas and packets are organized and available, due process and fairness, meeting procedures including citizen-placed agenda items, and a public participation umpire.
David Dilworth is executive director of Helping Our Peninsula's Environment (HOPE) who has for 15 years been an active participant in local government, going to as many as three governmental meetings on some days.
SPOTLIGHT SESSION: TERRY FRANCKE
A First Amendment PrimerA crash course in what everyone should know about how courts decide issues of freedom of speech, press, petition, association and religion, identifying settled law and listing breaking issues to watch.
Terry Francke is CFAC's general counsel and is widely recognized as an expert on California open government law and First Amendment issues. Francke came to the Coalition in 1990 after serving as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association for ten years. He is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and graduated from McGeorge School of Law in 1979. Prior to law school, his experience included radio news, public affairs positions in the Marine Corps and for a school district, and three years as editor of a weekly newspaper. Francke drafted the 1994 revisions to the Brown Act and is also the author of a model local government sunshine law that provides more government transparency than state law's minimum requirements. This model has been adopted in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Contra Costa County.
SPOTLIGHT SESSION: RENE AMY
A Street Fighter's Guide to Open GovernmentA lecture-based interactive presentation complete with anecdotal examples of how anyone-a newbie or seasoned professional-can increase their effectiveness in opening up government to the people. Including tips about public records, the Brown Act, and interacting with lawyers and the media.
Rene Amy is a highly successful independent access advocate and government watchdog from Pasadena who has won several open government lawsuits at the local and state level, attracting extensive media attention to the issues he has raised.
SPOTLIGHT SESSION: JIM MARCH
- The CPRA for Activists: A Successful Amateur's How-to Report
If you think access to and successful use of public records requires a law degree or specialized training, Jim will show you otherwise. A computer technical support professional who was abused by what he characterizes as "a seriously crooked system" and set out to fix it, learning the rules of the road to public records. Along the way, he's garnered a reputation as one of California's most radical, energetic and effective gun rights activists.
Jim March is proud to have been described in print as "one of two activists credited with destroying the Million Mom March gun control organization," armed with nothing but Public Records Act Requests. He has been lead plaintiff in two equal protection lawsuits regarding discrimination in gun permits, and lead plaintiff and attorney pro-per in a public records access suit involving gun permits.
Accessing State and Federal Court Records
Everything you ever wondered or wanted to know about access rights to court records at all levels of the judicial system. An interactive, how-to session with tips and cautions for those seeking judicial records. How to prevent records from being sealed and how to access a record that has already been sealed.
Duffy Carolan, a CFAC board member and author, is a partner at the San Francisco office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Carolan lectures on media law at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and specializes in media law, regularly advising and successfully representing various media entities on access issues. She has successfully litigated access issues for McClatchy Newspapers and the Oakland Tribune.
Rochelle Wilcox is an associate at the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine who lives and works in Sacramento. Her focus on media law includes access to government records and proceedings as well as shield law cases. She successfully represented the Los Angeles Times in obtaining access to records relating to alleged sexual harassment at the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, and she has helped The Press Enterprise of Riverside in obtaining access to numerous sealed plea agreements.
Recent Attempts to change California's Anti-SLAPP Law
California's anti-SLAPP law has been on the books for almost a decade, and we now have a wealth of experience with the way the courts have interpreted and applied it. This panel will discuss amendments to the law, including a bill this year to address the problem of corporate abuse of the law and other amendments suggested by the past 10 years worth of experience.
Mark Goldowitz, the moderator of the panel, is an attorney in Berkeley who specializes in defending against SLAPPs. He is also the founder and director of the California Anti-SLAPP Project, which led the coalition to win enactment of the anti-SLAPP law in 1992 and strengthening amendments in 1997 and 1999, and has co-sponsored a bill this year to address the problem of corporate abuse of the law.
Karl Olson specializes in defending news media clients and individuals against defamation and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. He has successfully defended dozens of such cases, disposing of most of them at a very early stage and obtaining sanctions or fee awards against the plaintiffs in many such cases. He has authored numerous articles on media law issues and lectured widely on defamation and First Amendment topics for both professional journalists and lawyers. He has been a co-chair of the Bench-Bar-Media Committee of the San Francisco Bar Association since 1990, and is a member of the governing committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law.
James Chadwick is an attorney with Gray Cary Ware Freidenrich in Palo Alto who specializes in media access law. A longtime advocate for open government, Chadwick is a member of the CFAC board of directors and a co-author of SCA 7, the constitutional sunshine amendment that would give all Californians a fundamental constitutional right of access to government meetings and records.
- Public Attorneys: Who's the Client and What Do You Tell Them?
City attorneys, county counsel and other lawyers advising government bodies and agencies are paid by the public but look to officials as their clients. When does this pose conflicts with public expectations? How much can and should these lawyers press for public access to meetings and records? A panel of experienced counsel provides insights.John Russo is the first elected City Attorney of Oakland and was the City Council member who sponsored passage of Oakland's Sunshine Ordinance. He will be the next president of the League of California Cities.
Barbara Blinderman, a CFAC board member, is a partner of Moskowitz, Brestoff, Winston & Blinderman and a longtime legal warrior for the First Amendment, unfettered access to public documents and greater government transparency. She is co-author (with attorney Roy Ulrich) of the current L.A. Sunshine Ordinance.
- Monitoring Meetings for Brown Act Compliance
Pointers on what signs to look for that indicate Brown Act violations, how to document suspect practices with video, and how to communicate with officials effectively to educate and persuade them and if necessary lay the groundwork for court enforcement. Richard McKee, Barbara InatsuguRichard McKee is the first citizen activist to be President of CFAC. McKee is a chemistry professor at Pasadena City College who has successfully sued a number of local government agencies to stop violations of open government law.
Barbara Inatsugu, a CFAC board member, is president of the League of Women Voters of California and an open government activist. She worked in the Superintendents Office in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for eight years and regularly dealt with Brown Act issues.
CPRA Denials Cloak Wrongdoing and Decision Process
A county supervisor uses the CPRA to expose wrongdoing at CalTrans but finds that success takes perseverance and willingness to face adversity. And a medical doctor who has attempted to use the CPRA to improve managed health care says the California Public Records Act is a "disaster." His attempts to obtain records from the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) showing the basis for DMHC care decisions is currently before the 3d District Court of Appeal.
Ken Berry has been involved in local government affairs for 14 years. He narrowly lost an Amador County Supervisor race in 2000 running on a platform of honest and open government. Berry filed a CPRA suit to compel the local CalTrans district to disclose engineering reports associated with job bidding. When he finally received the reports, they revealed deliberate engineering malpractice.
Harvey Frey is a medical doctor and the founder of the Health Administration Responsibility Project (HARP), a resource for patients, doctors, and attorneys seeking to establish the liability of HMOs, Managed Health Care Organizations, and Nursing Facilities for the consequences of their decisions. Dr. Frey is an Associate Clinical Professor of Radiology at the University of California at Los Angeles. He obtained his license to practice law the same year he saw his first Social Security check.
Further Panelists to Be Named
Free Speech and Youth
Young people face special challenges to their freedom of expression. Not only are youth often denied access to expression because of a fear that they might be harmed by it, but they find outlets for expressing their own views to be very limited. A panel of youth speakers will discuss how they fight censorship and give voice to their views.
(youth panelists to be named)
- SPOTLIGHT SESSION: DAVID FISHER
- Reporter's Rights to Access Criminal History Information Records and Arrest Only Reports
Practical tools and methods for getting police records staffs to cooperate with public records requests seeking criminal history information. Specific guidelines and forms used to access the most confidential records: arrest only records.
David W. Fisher, JD, has handled law, policy and government relations for United Reporting since 1996, when the news service filed federal litigation that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back when it was settled with the Los Angeles City Police Department conceding access and paying damages exceeding $380,000.
- SYMPOSIUM: Terry Francke
- Open Government: It's the Law!
A complete course on the Ralph M. Brown Act and how it is supposed to work for attorneys, journalists, civic activists and government officials. *Approved for 2.5 hours of MCLE credits for attorneys.
Terry Francke is CFAC's general counsel and is widely recognized as an expert on California open government law and First Amendment issues. Francke came to the Coalition in 1990 after serving as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association for ten years. He is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and graduated from McGeorge School of Law in 1979. Francke drafted the 1994 revisions to the Brown Act and is also the author of a model local government sunshine law that provides more government transparency than state law's minimum requirements. This model has been adopted in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and Contra Costa County.
- SPOTLIGHT SESSION: BILL CHAMBERLIN
- State Access Laws across the Nation
A leading policy analyst from Florida leads a discussion of state access laws across the nation, including the unveiling of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. The project will allow users of the www.citizenaccess.com website to compare readable summaries of state access statutes, cases and constitutional provisions. Those summaries are being rated by a panel of nationally recognized experts on open meetings and open records laws. Presentation will discuss comparisons of state constitutions and computer access laws, as well as other topics of current concern, including legislation aimed at curbing terrorism.- Bill Chamberlin has been the Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communications at the College of Journalism and Communications of the University of Florida since 1987. He now serves as Director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. He also is Founding Director of the College's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and an affiliate professor of the University of Florida College of Law.
Asking for Government Records and CPRA Compliance Audits
A primer for anyone interested in making requests for information from state and local governments using the California Public Records Act. In this practical how-to session, panelists will discuss the basics of acquiring records as well as the obstacles encountered by those seeking public documents. The session will include how to plan and conduct a CPRA audit in your community.
Diane Barney is managing editor of The Reporter in Vacaville. She has previously served as a board member for the California First Amendment Coalition and the California Society of Newspaper Editors. The Reporter is currently working on its 25th survey of public pay, which features salaries and benefits for top-level managers throughout Solano County and recently completed its first-ever public information audit.
Ray Herndon is a CFAC board member and computer projects editor for the Los Angeles Times.
Robin Miller is city editor of The Reporter in Vacaville. She played a lead
role in coordinating the newspaper's first-ever public information audit
this year, which involved sending a team of reporters and citizen volunteers
out to make 50 requests. Miller directed the reporting, editing and
packaging of the survey, which found a 41.3 percent rate of CPRA compliance.
Dan Weikel, a CFAC board member and transportation writer for the Los Angeles Times.
What Every Journalist Should Know About Covering the Courts
This presentation combines a PowerPoint lecture with interactive discussion spurred by hypotheticals to give journalists a practical overview of what they should know when covering the judicial system, with particular emphasis on the conflict between the First and Sixth Amendments and on new and emerging areas of law. Photography and California Rule of Court 980; California Supreme Court, NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal. 4th 1178 holding constitutional right of access to civil proceedings; new California Rule of Court 243.1 and 243.2 and a bevy of local rules that make it more difficult to file civil records under seal.
Stephen D. Kaus is a partner at Cooper, White & Cooper LLP with extensive litigation experience, having tried over 50 matters to verdict. He has 18 years of experience representing journalists in defamation, privacy and access issues. He is a former deputy public defender and an occasional author for legal publications.
Merrit M. Jones is an associate at Cooper, White & Cooper LLP specializing in First Amendment and media law. Prior to becoming an attorney, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for Gannet Newspapers in Michigan and Southern California.
Taming the WWW: A Provocative Discussion on Internet Filtering
Even before passage of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in 2000, some schools and libraries began installing Internet filtering/blocking software in an attempt to protect children from illegal, obscene, child pornographic, and harmful to minors materials. Does Internet blocking work? Or are alternative means such as Internet use policies and training, media literacy education, and supervision by parents, teachers, or librarians more effective at preventing inappropriate exposures while preserving the amazing educational opportunities offered by the Internet?
Will Doherty is the Executive Director of the Online Policy Group, an organization devoted to "one Internet with equal access for all," and Media Relations Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In both capacities, he conducts original research on Internet blocking software.
Susan Hildreth is the City Librarian of San Francisco, overseeing the main library, twenty-six branch libraries, and two bookmobiles. She is very active in the American Library Association, where she serves on the elected governing body, the ALA Council; in the California Library Association, where she served as Treasurer for five years; and the Public Library Association.
Whose Confidentiality is Being Protected When Kids in the System Die?
The Lance Helm Sunshine Act was adopted three years ago following the mysterious deaths of a number of dependent children whose care was being supervised by the child welfare system. Although the original intent of the Helms Act was to lift confidentiality provisions in child death cases, the opposite has occurred. An in-depth look at access to records and hearings in juvenile dependency court.
Cheryl Romo is a Los Angeles Daily Journal staff writer who specializes in the coverage of children whose lives are intertwined with government systems.
Mareva Brown is a journalist who has covered the foster care and juvenile dependency system extensively as a senior writer for The Sacramento Bee. She is the recipient of the 2001 Bill Farr Award given to an individual who furthers the open government cause through their actions. Brown went to court herself and convinced Sacramento's presiding dependency court judge to allow her access to records and hearings so she could report on the system and its flaws.
Charity Kenyan is a partner in Riegels Campos & Kenyon LLP. Included in Best Lawyers in America in the category First Amendment Law and recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sacramento Chapter, Freedom of Information Award in 1995, Charity has more than 20 years of experience representing local and regional newspapers and television stations, national broadcasters, publishers and news magazines in state and federal courts.
Marjie Lundstrom is a senior editor and columnist at The Sacramento Bee. In 1991, as a correspondent for Gannet News service, she won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for articles revealing how child-abuse deaths went undetected due to mistakes by medical examiners and coroners. She is a visiting faculty member in journalism ethics, writing and coaching at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida, and has been a guest lecturer at The National Writers Workshop, the American Press Institute, the National Journalism and Women Symposium, the Society for Professional Journalists, the University of California, Berkeley, and numerous other college campuses nationwide.
SLAPP Suit Basics: Protecting the Right of Public Participation
California's anti-SLAPP law continues to be a important tool for activists, journalists and all those
seeking to participate and report on matters of public interest. This panel will examine the basic operation of the anti-SLAPP law, discuss developments in the law over the past two years, and review some current issues.(Panel being formed)
David Greene is an attorney and the executive director of the First Amendment Project in Oakland.
Electronic Access to Court Records and Privacy Concerns
A look at the current practices throughout the state of electronic access to court records and concerns that have been raised regarding the privacy of individuals named in records held by the court.
Linda Ackerman is staff counsel for PrivacyActivism. Her main areas of expertise are privacy issues created by the extensive use of databases.
James Chadwick is an attorney with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich in Palo Alto who specializes in media access law. A longtime advocate for open government, Chadwick is a member of the CFAC board of directors and a co-author of SCA 7, the constitutional sunshine amendment that would give all Californians a fundamental constitutional right of access to government meetings and records.
Bill Chamberlin has been the Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communications at the College of Journalism and Communications of the University of Florida since 1987. He now serves as Director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. He also is Founding Director of the College's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and an affiliate professor of the University of Florida College of Law.
Griff Palmer is database editor for the San Jose Mercury-News. He coordinates acquisition of public records in electronic form for reporting purposes.
Deborah Pierce is founder and Executive Director of PrivacyActivism.org, a non-profit organization that focuses on consumer education, advocacy, and analysis of privacy issues.
Sunshine Ordinance I
Enacting Effective Policy in Los AngelesA look at the grassroots effort to create and sustain the L.A. Sunshine Coalition and push for a local Sunshine Ordinance with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Discussion will include what works and what doesn't; keeping focused; the differences in ethical comfort levels and actions between journalists and advocates; and interpreting and responding to successes, failures and delays.
Karen Ocamb is on the board of the L.A. Press Club and one of the organizers of the L.A. Sunshine Coalition. Based in West Hollywood, she is a freelance writer and independent producer with a penchant for exposing lies and malfeasance. Karen is a former associate producer at CBS News in New York.
Barbara Blinderman, a CFAC board member, is a partner of Moskowitz, Brestoff , Winston & Blinderman and a longtime legal warrior for the First Amendment, unfettered access to public documents and greater government transparency. She is co-author (with attorney Roy Ulrich) of the current L.A. Sunshine Ordinance.
Rich McKee is a Pasadena City College chemistry professor and the first non-journalist president of the CFAC. McKee, who is working on a law degree, carries both a carrot and a big stick, offering to educate politicians on the importance of open government and suing them when they fail to correct erroneous actions.
Joel Bellman is Communications Director for L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, president of the County's Board of Supervisors. A former journalist and a board member of the Southern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, he is a strong advocate for the First Amendment while also weighing the concerns and responsibilities of government. Joel has worked tirelessly to explain the Board's point of view during the process of pushing for a Sunshine Ordinance.
Cesar Portillo is the Director of Governmental Affairs for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, one of the nation's leading non-profit agencies for people with HIV/AIDS. A former candidate for state Assembly from the Hollywood-Silverlake area, he has become painfully familiar with government bureaucracy and the California Public Records Act. Cesar was once charged over $300 for a 7-page public record.
Sunshine Ordinance II
From Policy to Reality in OaklandOakland passed its Sunshine Ordinance in 1997 to expand the public's right beyond what was provided for by the Brown Act and California Public Records Act. But passing a new law by itself is not enough. How do you get the bureaucracy to accept and implement the new Sunshine Ordinance? Creation of Websites, brochures and outreach to the community, staff training and other ways to encourage city employees to carry out the intent of open government laws. A glimpse of the conflicts between the branches of city government over keeping the public's business public.
John Russo is the first elected City Attorney of Oakland and was the City Council member who sponsored passage of Oakland's Sunshine Ordinance. He will be the next president of the League of California Cities.
Mark Morodomi is supervising deputy for the Oakland City Attorney's Open Government Program and former acting chief of enforcement for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.
Michelle Abney is Oakland's new Open Government Coordinator who acts as the city's spokesperson when interacting with community members and outside agencies regarding requests for information and compliance with the Brown Act, CPRA and the Sunshine Ordinance.
Sunshine Ordinance III
Enforcement and other Fine TuningSan Francisco was the first California city to adopt a Sunshine Ordinance holding local officials to open government standards higher that state law. This panel will look at the San Francisco experience, with all its twists and turns, and examine how well-or not-the San Francisco ordinance is working.
Bruce Brugmann is a member of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and a CFAC director. He has long been an advocate for government transparency in San Francisco and throughout California.
Richard Knee serves on the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task force, and was a key member of the campaign team that persuaded San Francisco voters to approve an initiative strengthening the city's Sunshine Ordinance in 1999.
He is a long-time member of CFAC and the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, Freedom of Information Committee. He is a freelance journalist who writes a column on FOI and First Amendment issues for the monthly newsletter of National Writers Union Bay Area Local 3.Joshua Koltun is Chair of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force. He is a partner at the law firm Steinhart & Falconer LLP, and specializes in media and intellectual property litigation. He has represented newspaper and magazine publishers, network broadcasters, cable television channels, software companies, Internet sites and semiconductor chip designers. In addition to representing clients before the federal and state courts, he performs prepublication review and other counseling, and negotiates intellectual property licenses.
Unheard Voices: The Frustrations of Citizen Participation
Learn about dirty tricks that government agencies play to keep information from the public and how some government entities harass citizens, use public humiliation and the justice system to discourage public participation or scrutiny. Panelists have a wide array of experiences with government agencies that squelch participation with rules and even county prison time to punish those who choose to stand up for their rights.
Shirley Bard is a retired telecommunications executive who is frequently admonished at public meetings for being "out of order" when she attempts to expose wrongdoing by elected officials. She is second vice president of Government Watch Executive Council.
Shirley Goodwin is a retired San Bernardino County Sheriff's sergeant, turned private investigator, whose quest for animal welfare threw her into a fight to protect First Amendment rights. Finding herself targeted by political adversaries after she filed a civil rights action against the county, she was arrested and prosecuted for various charges. Ms. Goodwin holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from USC and an undergraduate degree from Cal State University, san Bernardino.
Laura Koepke is president of the Government Watch Executive Council and is President, Executive Editor and Publisher of the Justice Journal and Bear Valley Bulletin. She was removed from a county citizens advisory committee because she said "uncomplimentary things" about board members.Robert Nelson is a retired systems analyst whose family settled in Summit Valley in San Bernardino County in the 1920s. Land issues prompted Nelson to participate in San Bernardino County politics in the 1980s. Nelson says he has been targeted by corrupt politicians, leading to 45 arrests with 11 criminal cases filed against him, either of which were dismissed before trial.
Colleen Smethers will relate her experiences with the Riverside County Board of Supervisors as she lobbied for clean air and against organized cockfights.
Gina Wagner is first vice president of Government Watch Executive Council and a citizen activist who survived Hitler's fascist Germany and a SLAPP suit by a local fire chief.
Grand Juries as Open Government Watchdogs
A panel of experts explores the possibilities and pitfalls of grand juries as open government watchdogs. The president of the California Grand Jury Association proposes that a great way to improve government transparency is to strengthen and support the grand jury and publicize its findings. Another activist proposes a statewide grand jury system to investigate state agency tomfoolery. And Judge Quentin Kopp, who oversees grand jury investigations, shares his wisdom and insights into a grand jury's ability to help keep government meetings and records open to the public.
William Collier is the attorney who wrote the statewide grand jury initiative in conjunction with the Northern California Coalition for Limited Government (NCCLG). Collier is an environmental attorney and a consultant to business. He is a member of the Oaks Project, a group that sponsored Proposition 9 in 1998.
The Honorable Quentin Kopp is a former state senator who is currently a San Mateo County Superior Court judge who has overseen county grand jury efforts in the past. Judge Kopp has been a friend of the open government movement throughout his career.
Ralph Morrell is president of the Northern California Coalition for Limited Government, a non-profit organization that proposes an initiative to amend the state constitution to create a state grand jury system to scrutinize state government.
Jack Zepp is a retired attorney and president of the California Grand Jurors Association (CGJA), a non-profit organization of grand jury members from throughout the state. He served for 18 months on the Marin County Grand Jury in 1998-99 and is a "core issues" trainer for the CGJA, which trains hundreds of new grand jurors about their responsibilities, powers and duties and how to effectively oversee local governments.
Censorship and Secrecy on Campus
Jean Stapleton has been a student newspaper advisor for 29 years. She is currently the journalism advisor at East Los Angeles College where campus administrators confiscated the student newspaper due to coverage of a murder on campus.
Harvey Gotliffe is a journalism professor at San Jose State University and an advisor to the Commonweal Institute. He is a world traveler who has done extensive research on the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust and the first amendment dilemmas they have created on over 400 college campuses with their ads that say the Holocaust did not exist. Gotliffe interviewed 300 student editors, advertising managers and faculty advisors about the Holocaust ad controversy and will share his results.
Janet Ewell is advisor to an award-winning high school newspaper in Garden Grove who was fired after letting students write scathing editorials about the school's bathrooms and cafeteria food. She was later reinstated but told she was going to be replaced.
Hilda D. Delgado is an editor and writer for Campus News at East LA College. She sought financial and other records from her school's student government and was refused access. Delgado complained to the LA District Attorney's Office, which found that the Associated Student Union had violated open government law. As a result, the student government's comptroller was impeached and the Los Angeles Community College District adopted board rules establishing district policy on public access.
The Fundamentals of Libel, Privacy and the Shield LawA nuts-and-bolts session on the risks inherent in disseminating the information you obtain through aggressive newsgathering activities, including a look at trends and issues of libel, privacy and shield law protections.
- Linda Berger, formerly a practicing lawyer and journalist, is an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. While in practice, much of her work focused on First Amendment issues
and media defense. She recently finished writing an article evaluating federal and state shield laws and recommending ways to preserve shield law protection despite technological, cultural, and economic changes that make it possible for almost anyone to be a 'journalist.'- Neil Shapiro, a partner in the San Francisco firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP, has more than thirty years of experience defending newspaper publishers and television broadcasters against claims of libel and invasion of privacy, in representing them in government and court access matters, and in counseling them on the content of their daily news reports. He has argued numerous press cases in the appellate courts, and for the last decade and a half has been recognized for his work by inclusion in Best Lawyers in America as a First Amendment specialist.
- Steve Burns is Assistant General Counsel for McClatchy Newspapers and is responsible for First Amendment/newsroom and litigation matters for the company. Prior to coming to McClatchy, Burns represented a wide variety media organizations in libel and private litigation for almost twenty years. Burns has also taught First Amendment law and other subjects at McGeorge School of Law.
- Ed Davis, a partner with Gray Cary Ware & Friedenrich in Palo Alto, has represented media entitles and journalists for more than twenty years. He has taught courses in media law, and has lectured extensively on First Amendment topics both in the United States and abroad. In 1991, Davis received the Laren Miller Legal Services Award for his pro bono work on First Amendment matters.