New Public Records Act Bill May Pose Problems

Recently Assemblymember Eric Linder of Corona introduced AB 1707, a California Public Records Act bill. AB 1707 would amend Section 6255 of the Government Code to require an agency to respond in writing to all public records requests, oral or written, when the agency determines that the request must be denied, in whole or in part, because the record(s) contain information that is not disclosable pursuant to the act. The bill would require that the response include the title or other identifying information of each record requested but withheld due to an exemption and the specific exemption that applies to that record.

The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors Legislative Committee is currently reviewing the bill to examine whether the bill would make simple at-the-counter records requests unnecessarily burdensome, and whether the bill should be amended to make it more manageable. Clerks wishing to weigh in on the bill can contact any member of the COB Leg. Committee or John McKibben at (213) 200-9610.