Should There Be Blanket Public Record Act Exemptions in Bills?

Have you seen this provision while reading bills in the California Legislature?

Contracts, grants, and related information created or obtained pursuant to this provision shall not be made public and are exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1 of the Government Code). 

What is the meaning of this language? It provides an outright exemption from the requirements of California’s Public Records Act (PRA), which is intended to allow public access to government records and documents.

By way of background, the PRA covers “public records” of public agencies, including state and local government (the Legislature has its own law – “Legislative Open Records Act”). Public records are defined as any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.

What is the stated purpose of the PRA? The law says, “in enacting this division, the Legislature, mindful of the right of individuals to privacy, finds and declares that access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state.”

To be fair, there are already numerous exemptions in the PRA precluding public disclosure of specified information. However, a blanket exemption, such as the one found above in California law, appears overbroad. Hopefully, there are clear explanations and justifications for any such PRA exemptions.

While personal identifying information, medical records, certain tax records, proprietary information, litigation documents, and the like are appropriately exempt from public disclosure, a blanket exemption is rarely justified in my opinion. For example, documents related to contract negotiations may be appropriately withheld from the public, but why would the entire finalized contract be exempt from disclosure?

Similarly, perhaps proprietary information in a grant may be appropriately withheld from the public, but why would the final grant (and the corresponding expenditure of public monies) be exempt from disclosure? For example, the state discloses the award amounts and awardees for Employment Training Panel grants, CalCompetes tax credits, etc. So, what is the justification for exempting any grants of public funds from disclosure under the PRA?

While narrowly drafted exemptions from the California Public Records Act should be considered when justified, I question the necessity or appropriateness of blanket exemptions from the PRA. Transparency of public agency actions and the expenditure of public dollars should be the guiding principle.