Dear Editor,
I’m writing with questions about why the City of Cypress only publishes certain public records requests on its website while concealing many others. Looking at the city website just randomly today, I can see only a handful of public records requests have been made public, but we all know the city has received many more requests over the past few years. And oddly the ones made public contribute to a certain nonsense narrative the city continues to embellish and weaponize.
Who exactly decides which public records requests get published and which ones don’t? What criteria are being used to make these decisions? Is there a written policy that explains why some requesters get their requests published while others are kept hidden from public view?
This selective publication seems to violate the California Public Records Act, which requires equal treatment for all public records requesters. When a city chooses to publish some requests but not others, it creates an unfair system where some citizens get transparency while others don’t.
I’m particularly curious about who has the authority to make these publication decisions. Is it the City Manager? The City Clerk? The City Attorney? Or does someone else decide what the public gets to see and what stays hidden?
The California Public Records Act was designed to ensure government transparency, not to allow cities to pick and choose what information becomes public. Government Code Section 6254.5 specifically prohibits selective disclosure practices like this.
Can you explain the legal justification for publishing only certain public records requests while concealing others? What gives the city the right to treat some requesters differently thweapon I’ve.By publishing some public records requests on its website while concealing others, the City of Cypress has created exactly the kind of discriminatory access system that California law prohibits. The California Supreme Court has consistently held that the Public Records Act requires equal treatment of all requesters and that agencies cannot engage in selective disclosure practices that favor some members of the public over others.
I’d appreciate answers to these questions and would like to see all public records requests from the past three years published on the city website, including mine, not just the select few that someone has decided we’re allowed to see.
Transparency shouldn’t be selective. Either publish all public records requests or publish none, but this current system of picking favorites violates California law and undermines public trust.
I look forward to your response explaining who makes these decisions and why only certain requests are deemed worthy of publication. New Council Members, if you don’t know the answer to this please ask someone neutral that does.
Sincerely,
Katie Shapiro, Cypress