Los Rios Community College District

Chancellor’s Office:

The Office of the Chancellor at the LRCCD was a little confusing. I walked in and there wasn’t really any sort of receptionist, just four cubicles facing inward, two on each side surrounded by a square of four or five offices and conference rooms. So I asked the lady in the first occupied cubicle for the public records attendant and she looked at me like deer in the headlights, and turned to a man that was standing behind her, and he asked me what he could do for me. I asked for the form 700, and he asked for whom. I got out the script and started to read off the names. He walked away to get the files after I mentioned the members of the board. I didn’t get a chance to ask him for the other four personnel requests. I wasn’t aware in the first place that there even was a form 700 for each individual person, I thought, for some reason, that they were all collected into one form. And I didn’t have the chance to ask him for the ethics training form either. While I was sitting, waiting for the forms, the lady came over and asked me what I needed them for, and I told her that I was a reporter with the State Hornet and am doing a story. She relayed that information to the man. Once the man came back out with the forms, he pulled me into the conference room and told me that I couldn’t leave the conference room with the documents unless I wanted a copy, and I said I did. He asked me what my story was about and I told him that I was not allowed to disclose that information. He also mentioned to me that not all of the forms from the board were in because they aren’t due till April 1.

While I was waiting for a receipt for the $2 I paid for the copies, the man went into the backroom and I heard him speaking to someone on the phone, saying something about how my editor wouldn’t let me disclose the story to him.

The lady in the cubicle, Darlene Braden, mentioned right before I left that they were short staffed today, and I’m assuming, because the man was on the phone with someone else, that the lady who normally deals with public records was out for the day.

On my second trip back to see if I could get more documents and make some clarifications, Cathy Deutscher, who was absent the previous day (3/24) was here today and when I walked in, I asked her for the documents of the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and whoever is in charge of purchasing. She said they didn’t have any and so I asked if there were equivalent positions and she said there was the chancellor, and the position right under the chancellor, I forget the official title because she never gave me the form 700 for that position, only for the chancellor, three buyers and the purchasing supervisor, which I realized after I had left.

She said just one moment and got on the phone with the man I spoke to yesterday and asked him about it. She put him on hold and came up to ask me why I needed them and what my story was about. I asked her if she needed to have that information for me to receive the documents and she said no, and gave me a sort of taken aback look. She went back over to the phone and then proceeded to ask me questions from her cubicle with the man on the phone. She asked me when the story was due to come out, what my editors name was, and then also came over again to check my id. She asked for a press pass, but all I had was my Sacramento State ID, and as if that wasn’t enough, I had on a backpack that said “Sacramento State Rowing” (which is the team I am on at the school). I asked her again, when she asked for my ID if she needed it for me to get the papers, and again I got the same answer as before. She found the forms and made copies of five sheets, charging me $1.25, or $0.25 per page when yesterday, I was charged $0.10 per page by the man she was speaking to on the phone (I believe his name was John). She asked for my money before I got the papers, and I gave it to her. I asked her how much it was per page; she said $0.25/page.

When I asked her about the ethics training, she said she didn’t have updated information and didn’t want to give me “erroneous information”. She said something about doing the training online, and I asked her if there were recorded documentation that it was completed, and she responded saying something along the lines of them doing it online on their own. She seemed slightly hesitant, and said that if I could come back tomorrow to get it, but call before I came. She gave me her business card and I agreed to do so.

Before I left, she again asked me what I needed this for, why I was getting it. And she said something along the lines of “Shouldn’t you know about the online training through the FPPC website? That’s where they print off form 700s and such”, and I said I didn’t know, I was just collecting the information for my editor and we would be going from there to analyze things. I left shortly after feeling pretty intimidated and harassed.

Campus Police:

Sacramento City College PD was very helpful. I went in, asked the front desk for the crime log of the past seven days and received it within five minutes. I was in and out very quickly and the lady didn’t ask me questions, or look at me sideways, just said “Ok” and printed off the documents. I arrived at 3:25pm and left at 3:30pm.

CalAware Reaction (Terry Francke, General Counsel):

The auditor requesting the Form 700s was required to show photo ID and received a very persistent questioning as to her name, affiliation and purpose for requesting the records, and was charged 25 cents per page for some of them – all practices inconsistent with the law. The determination letter responding to the written request was timely but said that that employee discipline records of the kind requested were confidential.

Anne Morrison can be reached at [email protected].