As those of you who were at our meeting last Monday (or who read your emails) know, we had as a guest presenter local muckraker and write-in candidate for mayor Michael Petrelis, who I'd invited to come teach us about how to get information from local government by filing Public Records requests.
I think most of those who attended found it very interesting and worthwhile, and I'm sorry more folks weren't there to see it (unfortunately I don't think anyone was videotaping). If I can get Michael to do another similar presentation at some point, I will try to make sure and post about it here.
During his presentation, Michael actively solicited ideas from us on what information we would like to find out from the local Powers That Be. I mentioned two, one relating to finding out what lands the city owns or leases, and the other related to finding out more about who is being held in custody by the SF Sheriff's Department.
Yesterday I sent off two emails formally initiating these requests, one to the Sheriff's Department, the other to the city's Real Estate division (copied below). Since I sent them at the end of the day Friday, I didn't ask for a confirmation reply until close-of-business Monday, rather than asking for a same-day response as Michael suggested in his talk, but I did incorporate various other suggestions of his on the specific language.
I will report back here on whatever responses I receive from the agencies regarding these requests. Meanwhile, others are welcome to use them as a template -- you can see that I essentially did this myself, using a very similar format for both letters -- when writing your own letters seeking information on the questions you'd like answered about how our tax dollars are being spent and what is being done in our names, and likewise let us know what responses you get. Hopefully we will all able to learn from each other's experiences and share tips and suggestions.
Let the Sunshine in!
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
P.S. - The "in the public interest" language I included was not part of Michael's talk, and probably unnecessary at the local level (I believe he indicated to us that he's never been charged for his local info requests), but as I was mentioning to him afterward, I did receive some previous instruction in this stuff during one of my college journalism courses, and may have even filed a previous request or two in that context, I don't recall (it was a while ago). I do recall being told that in some cases agencies would charge people for providing copies of materials however, but that the magic words "this request is being made in the public interest" (or words to that effect) could invoke an exemption from being charged such fees, if the subject of the request was in fact found to be a matter of public interest. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention it.