I walked into the agency at 2:40 p.m. and waited a moment until a woman came out to the front desk to help me. She was extremely courteous and receptive at what I was saying. When I mentioned that I wanted to speak with the person responsible with dealing with public records, she was slightly confused on what I meant. I figured since it was a smaller agency, it didn’t have anyone specifically in charge with those details. After I explained more, she said the person I needed to talk to was out for the day, but would be back the next day. I asked if she would be able to help me get the documents, but she said she had never heard of the form 700 and assumed the agency hadn’t complete ethics training since she wasn’t aware of it. She asked me why exactly I was requesting this information, but was just curious. I asked her if I could leave my name and number and she gave me something to write on. I also asked her for a business and she handed one over with no problem. Her name was Sandi.

I left the agency at around 2:48.

I did not receive a phone call from the agency and they did not follow up with me regarding the oral request, but did receive a letter of determination on April 2 from George Tigner, director of personnel.

CalAware Reaction (Terry Francke, General Counsel):

This school, operating under a charter from Center Unified School District, does not have its own board whose members would have to file Form 700s, but in any event no one ever got back to the auditor about the requested Form 700s for the principal and any administrators reporting to him. This small school said it had no records of expulsion, staff discipline, litigation claims or settlements, or expense reimbursement claims of its own for the covered period (8/1/07).

Chloe Daley can be reached at [email protected].