{ "id": "1996-november-california-dreaming", "slug": "1996-november-california-dreaming", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-november-california-dreaming.html", "year": 1996, "month": "November", "monthNum": 11, "headline": "California dreaming", "kicker": "Reporters detail electronic nightmare", "author_name": "Jennifer LaFleur", "author_title": "", "affiliation": "San Jose Mercury News", "summary": "California journalists face significant challenges accessing government data due to inconsistent policies across agencies, unclear laws regarding electronic records, and privacy concerns that vary by jurisdiction. The lack of uniform application of public records laws creates unpredictable outcomes for reporters seeking databases on everything from pet licenses to personnel files.", "keywords": [ "access", "databases", "California" ], "topics": [ "Investigative Methods", "Government & Politics", "Data & Databases" ], "technologies": [], "full_text": "We may never know what the most common name for a dog is in San Jose, Calif., or who really sponsors roads in the California adopt-a-highway program. These examples may not be critical data for California news organizations, but when government agencies limit access to pet licenses and highway cleanup programs, imagine how they react to requests for personnel files and police data. That's because getting databases about individuals is just one of the many access problems faced by California journalists. Another problem is that each agency chooses the format in which it provides records and a murky law allows for inconsistencies. \"California, being the largest state, might seem a goldmine for electronic information,\" said Chris Schmitt, Mercury News telecom editor and longtime CAR geek. \"But the truth is, it's a jumbled, chaotic mess, with no clear guidelines, and decisions about releasing information seemingly based as much on whim as intelligent policy.\"\n\n\"Those things are really the problem areas,\" said Terry Francke, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, a Sacramento-based organization developed to advance freedom of information. \"[One problem is the] overall anxiety about privacy concerns in general, including addresses in particular. The state legislature has just passed a bill that creates a joint committee that deals with computer and personal information and privacy, which will spend all of 1997 looking into both public and private uses of personal information in automated systems and probably will be making some legislative recommendations in the spring of 1998.\"\n\n'No middle ground'\n\n\"It seems to me that with public records requests in the Golden State paper and electronic either turn out very good, or they turn out very bad. There is no middle ground,\" said Rebecca Raney of The San Bernardino County Sun. \"I've found that the agencies most willing to abide by the law are those with the most savvy attorneys. There's nothing uniform about application of public records laws here. It's a big free-for-all, with each agency responding as it sees fit.\"\n\nWithin certain types of records little-known inconsistencies. \"We had an experience with marriage licenses, which are public - right?\" said Russell Clemings of the Fresno Bee. \"But there were some records that were confidential marriage licenses. If you get married in the jail, it's automatically a confidential marriage license.\"\n\nWhen it comes to getting access to electronic information, some of the barriers are greater because California's Open Records Act is not specific about access to electronic records; therefore, many agencies will only provide paper documents.\n\nSteve Rees, publisher for Publishing 20/20, a San Francisco-based publisher of regional guidebooks to public schools, fought with the San Francisco school district for electronic data. \"The law is somewhat ambiguous as far as electronic records whether reports or the .dbf files were the published material,\" he said. \"We ended up with hard copy only after many weeks of wrestling.\"\n\nMurky law\n\n\"Meanwhile, the public records itself is in the same stage it was in the '70s in a different universe in what is practical in the realm of computers,\" Francke said. \"It's up to each agency as to what form or format or medium they need to give you.\"\n\nThe fuzziness regarding electronic records in the Open Records Act results in inconsistencies statewide - certain data is easy to get in one county but not in another. Clemings successfully gained access to police call data in his area while other reporters across the state have been denied similar access. While several cities provide their pet license database to journalists, the city of San Jose refuses, arguing that abusive spouses will seek out their mates-in-hiding or that others may use the data to locate police officers.\n\n\"There's also the issue about segregation of disclosable from nondisclosable information and whether an agency has the obligation to do that, especially if doing that requires a new program,\" said Judy Alexander of GenesisLaw, a San Jose media law firm. \"It's that kind of manipulation and whether it's the creation of a new record that is really murky under California law.\"\n\nIn addition, agencies are all over the board when it comes to fees charged for data. Journalists can help each other by not paying high prices for data because it ends up setting a precedent and hurting others.\n\n\"It's also pretty clear if you listen to the lobbyists for state and local government,\" said Francke. \"One thing they want to get out of all this is money.\"\n\nBut the picture of access in California is not completely grim, and experts are hopeful that revisions in FOIA at the federal level may spur states to include electronic information in their laws. In addition, we do have access to some databases not available in all states:\n\nVoter Registration data: This database is not a public record, but the press has access through a special exemption. This puts a lot of pressure on news organizations to limit use of such data to just the editorial side of the business. This data is available from counties and the Secretary of State. In some cases, the data is less costly from the Secretary of State's Office.\n\nLate contributions. The California Voter Foundation provided electronic access to large late contributions in the state through a listserv. This was an invaluable resource for reporters looking into campaign finance in the last days before the election.\n\nIn addition, more agencies are making data available on the Internet. Here are some:\n\nA complete list of California agencies online is available at: http://www.ganymede.org/agencies.html\nDepartment of Education: http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/ This site provides a lot of detailed education data.\nDepartment of Insurance: http://www.insurance.ca.gov This site provides a database regarding companies, their rates and complaints against them.\nCalifornia Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Pesticide Regulation provides pesticide use reports on-line at http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/archives/document/docmenu.htm\nCalifornia Department of Transportation provides some report and several of their software engineering models at http://www.dot.ca.gov\nEmployment Development Department http://www.edd.cahwnet.gov/ This site provides a bounty of employment and economic data for California.\nThe Department of Finance's Statistical Abstract is now on-line at http://www.dof.ca.gov/html/fs_data/stat-abs/toc.htm\nCalifornia UCC filings are available during beta test from Merlin Information Services at http://www.merlindata.com They have several other databases available on CD-ROM for a fee. A price list is available at this site.\nState Campaign Finance data is available for a fee through of Sacramento. (916) 447-1886.\n\nListservs:\n\nCalifornia Freedom of Information Listserv: CAL-FOI. This list, sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of SPJ's Freedom of Information Committee, is a forum for discussion of freedom of information, public records and First Amendment issues. Subscribe to maiser@rosebud.berkeley.edu with the message: subscribe cal-foi [your name]\nCalgovinfo This list from Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility provides a forum for discussion of access and computerization of government records in California. Subscribe to calgovinfo@cpsr.gov\n\nJennifer LaFleur can be reached at jenster@sjmercury.com.", "provenance": { "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6", "extracted_at": "2026-07-05", "verified": true }, "similar": [ { "slug": "1995-december-legal-griefs", "score": 0.265 }, { "slug": "1996-november-electronic-battles", "score": 0.246 }, { "slug": "1994-april-lets-educate-the-public", "score": 0.227 }, { "slug": "1992-january-news-and-observer-challenges-nc-for-access-to-public-information", "score": 0.204 }, { "slug": "1991-january-access-to-info-in-california", "score": 0.199 } ], "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-november-california-dreaming.html", "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1996-november-california-dreaming.json" }