San Bernardino Voters Pay the Price for Official’s Neglect of Open Records Law
San Bernardino taxpayers must now foot a $75,000 bill following a ruling in a recent public records case. The ruling comes after an extensive legal battle in which officials refused to turn over public records data requested through the California Public Records Act.
The litigation began in 2020 when the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom Foundation filed a records request to obtain the names and union affiliations of San Bernardino employees. This is part of the foundation’s larger effort to inform public employees of their right to not join a union following the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus Decision.
In their request, the Freedom Foundation sought the names, birthdates, union affiliations, county email addresses, and work locations of San Bernardino employees.
“The county takes its responsibility to protect our employees’ confidential information seriously and refused to provide this information,” a county spokesperson commented when questioned.
Work locations and email addresses for public employees are “confidential?”
According to the Freedom Foundation, this request came on the heels of previously successful records requests in which the county complied and provided the requested information.
After nearly two years of litigation, a California superior court handed down a ruling in June 2022. It ruled that San Bernardino County was in violation of California’s Open Records law by refusing to hand over county work locations. The Freedom Foundation lost on all of the other counts.
Per the CPRA, if the government entity is found in any way at fault, they must pay the plaintiff’s legal fees, which in this case totaled $70,000. Despite the definitive nature of the ruling, San Bernardino County repeatedly dragged its feet and came up with excuses in delaying the payout to the Freedom Foundation. After just over a year, they have finally complied and reimbursed the foundation for their legal fees.
These kinds of delays are not uncommon, according to Chief Litigator Eric Stahlfeld.
“The meter was running,” he said “The longer the case dragged on, the more time we spent on it and the higher their bill kept getting.
“In cases like this, government agencies know they’re playing with house money,” Stahlfeld explained. “They couldn’t care less how much the process costs or how long it takes. That’s why ordinary people either don’t bother suing the government or don’t stick with it very long. They don’t have endless streams of money to pay lawyers.”
More than three years and $70,000 in taxpayer funding to protect “confidential” email addresses! This kind of excessive bureaucracy should be alarming to any Californian who cares about government transparency and openness.
Taxpayer funds should not be spent on such frivolous issues, but San Bernadino County is no stranger to major spending.
In 2022 alone, County CEO Leonard X Hernandez brought in $589,028 in total pay and benefits. Undersheriff Horace J Boatwright received $607,656 from the county for the same year. These kinds of salaries for the top executives are only made possible by tapping into the hard-earned tax dollars of the average Californian.
The rampant bureaucracy in San Bernardino is a threat to freedom and opportunity in the Golden State. Our leaders must be held accountable, and refusing to turn over information to the public sets a dangerous precedent for our state.
