Since 1999, the district attorney of San Francisco has been legally required to maintain an accurate calendar of daily meetings and events and to provide the public with it when requested. Current DA and ambitious political animal, George Gascon, didn't get the memo outlining the law about calendars so he just didn't keep one.
I filed a public records request for Gascon's calendar for the first five months of 2015 and received woefully inadequate responsive records. The majority of days were totally blank, as shown above. Not satisfied, I lodged a complaint with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force alleging the DA was violating our public records law.
The complaint committee of the SOTF heard my evidence against Gascon at a June hearing, and the DA's public information officer, Alex Bastian, represented the department. Bastian basically had no clue why the DA wasn't keeping a full and genuine calendar and the committee recommended a vote about a violation before the full SOTF.
On July 1, in a unanimous vote, the SOTF issued an Order of Determination finding Gascon in violation of the sunshine statute. Chair of the SOTF, Allyson Washburn, referred the matter to the compliance committee to monitor the new calendar policy in development at the DA's office.
To ensure Gascon finally complies with all applicable sunshine laws, once July has concluded, I'll make a request for this month's calendar. We'll see if he once and for all fulfills his legal obligations to taxpayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment