July
18, 2014
San
Jose Mercury News
By Tom Lochner
Contra Costa Times
MARTINEZ -- A recommendation by the Contra
Costa County Civil Grand Jury to post employment contracts, audits and
financial disclosure statements on public agency websites is getting mixed
responses.
At least one city, Oakley, has already posted
on its website the annual Statement of Economic Interests, or Form 700, required
of elected and high-ranking administrative officials, as well as employment
contracts, annual audits, and travel and entertainment reimbursements. And
several other cities say they are at various stages of implementing the
recommendation.
But Contra Costa's largest agency, the county
government, characterized most of the grand jury's posting recommendation as
"not reasonable or warranted."
"Economic Interest Statements,
employment contracts, and travel reimbursements may contain personal information
that, while publicly disclosable, is not appropriate for publication on the
World Wide Web," reads the county's response to the grand jury, delivered
to the Board of Supervisors by county Administrator David Twa earlier this
month and approved 5-0 by the board.
"Redaction of home addresses, personal
telephone numbers, personal email addresses, and signatures for web
presentation would be cost-prohibitive," it continues.
The county already posts annual audits and
meeting agendas and supporting documents, the response notes.
One prominent open government advocate did
not agree with the county's reasoning.
"The County's ... use of the term
'cost-prohibitive' is interesting," Terry Francke, general counsel at
Californians Aware, said in an email. "It seems to mean 'not worth the
effort,' because what it says is that the redaction cost is too big an
investment in saving citizens the travel costs and lost time of having to drive
to county headquarters to see the reports."
The grand jury directed its recommendation to
all of the county's 19 cities as well as to more than 30 school, fire, water,
health care and other special districts.
Elsewhere in the county, Pinole has posted
officials' Form 700 since 2008. The economic statements are intended to head
off or disclose potential conflicts of interest by listing business positions,
investments in businesses and real estate, other sources of income, and gifts.
Pinole City Clerk Patricia Athenour said the
extra staff time involved in scanning and uploading the forms is "a worthy
service to the public" and will save time for staff who can refer
inquiries to the Web.
San Pablo posts agendas and supporting
documents, annual audits, and employment contracts and is "in process of
addressing" the posting of other documents identified in the grand jury
report, City Manager Matt Rodriguez said this week.
Antioch City Clerk Arne Simonsen said this
week he is "in the process" of scanning the Forms 700 as well as some
campaign documents and hopes to have them up by August.
Pittsburg's city clerk, Alice Evenson, said
officials in her city have "thought about" posting the Forms 700 and
campaign documents, "and we may, once we have a second person in the city
clerk's department."
At the July 8 Board of Supervisors meeting,
Supervisor John Gioia and board Chairwoman Karen Mitchoff backed posting the
economic interest disclosures filed by elected officials, but not those of
county employees.
The bulk of the economic disclosure forms are
filed with the clerk of the Board of Supervisors by people who serve in more
than 600 positions, some with the county but the majority within special
districts, committees and other bodies.
On the other hand, only about two dozen
officials, including county supervisors, planning commissioners, the county administrator,
district attorney, county counsel, treasurer and officials of several panels
file their annual Form 700 with the Contra Costa County clerk-recorder's
office, as do candidates for countywide offices and some other offices.
Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder and
Registrar of Voters Joe Canciamilla said his office is "working to get
Form 700s online shortly" but must first work out software licensing
issues that allow the public to look up the forms online.
"Our plan is to make all 700s filed with
our office available online as they are all public documents," said
Assistant County Registrar Scott Konopasek, in an email Friday.
The grand jury's recommendation to post the
array of public records is part of a generally upbeat assessment of the state
of the Public Records Act in Contra Costa County, although the panel found
compliance with the act by cities and special districts "uneven."
Staff
writers Paul Burgarino, Rowena Coetsee and Paula King contributed to this
report. Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760. Follow him at Twitter.com/tomlochner.
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