DPA SB 1421 Request Responses - Immediate Disclosure Request

Paul Henderson and DPA,

** Note that all of your responses (including disclosed records) may be automatically and instantly available to the public on the MuckRock.com FOIA web service used to issue this request (though I am not a MuckRock representative). Redact your responses correctly - once you send them to us there is no going back. Nothing herein is legal, IT, or professional advice of any kind. The author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to all warranties of merchantability or fitness. In no event shall the author be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or any other damages whatsoever. The digital signature, if any, in this email is not an indication of a binding agreement or offer; it merely authenticates the sender. Please do not include any confidential information, as I intend that these communications with the City all be public records.**

This is a new Immediate Disclosure Request under the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance and the CPRA, made on December 3, 2019, to Paul Henderson as an individual custodian of public records and to the Department of Police Accountability as a public agency.

This is also an SFAC 67.21(c) request for statements of quantity, nature, existence, and form (even if content is exempt) of records responsive to each of 1 and 2 -- you must provide these statements within 7 days without any form extension.

All records must be provided in a rolling fashion (SFAC 67.25).  If you use a web portal, you must publish all records openly without login or terms and conditions; or you may provide records as attachments to emails.  You may not impose any conditions on me beyond than those of the CPRA (including any conditions that I must use a private entity's website which imposes terms and conditions).

A warning: every record you release to this publicly viewable email mailbox may become automatically visible to the public via the Muckrock.com FOIA service, and via other journalistic services that publish FOIA and public records documents for searching and indexing online. Please be absolutely certain you have correctly redacted all records prior to transmitting them to us, because there is no going back.

Please read carefully the exact wording of my request. Please follow the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA precisely as I am auditing your agency's public records regimen. As the City is aware, every violation of the Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA will be appealed immediately, including:
- any untimely or incomplete response, failure to provide records in a rolling fashion as soon as they are available, or failing to indicate whether you have responsive records or not for each request and whether you withheld any records for each request (SFAC 67.21, 67.25, Gov Code 6253(c)),
- withholding more than the minimum exempt portion of any record (SFAC 67.26),
- failure to justify with "clear reference" to an exemption statute or case law for each and every redaction or withholding, including any so-called 'metadata' (SFAC 67.26, 67.27),
- failure to provide "exact copies" of records (Gov Code 6253(b)),
- failure to provide the "electronic format in which [you] hold[] the information" (Gov Code 6253.9),
- failure to provide any "easily generated" format that we requested (SFAC 67.21(l)),
- refusing to provide the quantity of exempt records (SFAC 67.21(c)),
- unlawful use of the exemptions prohibited by SFAC 67.24, including but not limited to GC 6255, any public interest balancing test,
- redacting or withholding information whose exemption you have already waived by producing it to the public before (Gov Code 6254.5).

Please provide:

1) IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE: all responses DPA has provided to SB 1421 requestors, associated with the 24 responsive records DPA published to MuckRock.com on Dec. 3. (we are looking for the letters/emails you sent to the requesters which are supposed to set out "clear reference" to an exemption statute or court case for each and every redaction made in the 24 records so far published. If no justifications exist, or there is a general list of justifications instead of a "clear reference" showing which redactions apply to which exemption).

Please provide only those copies of records available without any fees. If you determine certain records would require fees, please instead provide the required notice of which of those records are available and non-exempt for inspection in-person if we so choose.

I look forward to your immediate disclosure.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

Paul Henderson and DPA,

** Note that all of your responses (including disclosed records) may be automatically and instantly available to the public on the MuckRock.com FOIA web service used to issue this request (though I am not a MuckRock representative). Redact your responses correctly - once you send them to us there is no going back. Nothing herein is legal, IT, or professional advice of any kind. The author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to all warranties of merchantability or fitness. In no event shall the author be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or any other damages whatsoever. The digital signature, if any, in this email is not an indication of a binding agreement or offer; it merely authenticates the sender. Please do not include any confidential information, as I intend that these communications with the City all be public records.**

This is a new Immediate Disclosure Request under the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance and the CPRA, made on December 3, 2019, to Paul Henderson as an individual custodian of public records and to the Department of Police Accountability as a public agency.

This is also an SFAC 67.21(c) request for statements of quantity, nature, existence, and form (even if content is exempt) of records responsive to each of 1 and 2 -- you must provide these statements within 7 days without any form extension.

All records must be provided in a rolling fashion (SFAC 67.25). If you use a web portal, you must publish all records openly without login or terms and conditions; or you may provide records as attachments to emails. You may not impose any conditions on me beyond than those of the CPRA (including any conditions that I must use a private entity's website which imposes terms and conditions).

A warning: every record you release to this publicly viewable email mailbox may become automatically visible to the public via the Muckrock.com FOIA service, and via other journalistic services that publish FOIA and public records documents for searching and indexing online. Please be absolutely certain you have correctly redacted all records prior to transmitting them to us, because there is no going back.

Please read carefully the exact wording of my request. Please follow the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA precisely as I am auditing your agency's public records regimen. As the City is aware, every violation of the Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA will be appealed immediately, including:
- any untimely or incomplete response, failure to provide records in a rolling fashion as soon as they are available, or failing to indicate whether you have responsive records or not for each request and whether you withheld any records for each request (SFAC 67.21, 67.25, Gov Code 6253(c)),
- withholding more than the minimum exempt portion of any record (SFAC 67.26),
- failure to justify with "clear reference" to an exemption statute or case law for each and every redaction or withholding, including any so-called 'metadata' (SFAC 67.26, 67.27),
- failure to provide "exact copies" of records (Gov Code 6253(b)),
- failure to provide the "electronic format in which [you] hold[] the information" (Gov Code 6253.9),
- failure to provide any "easily generated" format that we requested (SFAC 67.21(l)),
- refusing to provide the quantity of exempt records (SFAC 67.21(c)),
- unlawful use of the exemptions prohibited by SFAC 67.24, including but not limited to GC 6255, any public interest balancing test,
- redacting or withholding information whose exemption you have already waived by producing it to the public before (Gov Code 6254.5).

Please provide:

1) IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE: all responses DPA has provided to SB 1421 requestors, associated with the 24 responsive records DPA published to MuckRock.com on Dec. 3. (we are looking for the letters/emails you sent to the requesters which are supposed to set out "clear reference" to an exemption statute or court case for each and every redaction made in the 24 records so far published. If no justifications exist, or there is a general list of justifications instead of a "clear reference" showing which redactions apply to which exemption).

Please provide only those copies of records available without any fees. If you determine certain records would require fees, please instead provide the required notice of which of those records are available and non-exempt for inspection in-person if we so choose.

I look forward to your immediate disclosure.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

I made a distinct request for distinct records.
Regardless, DPA if free to internally treat it however it wants to as long as it follows every Sunshine Ordinance provision.

NOTE: Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. The email address sending this request is a publicly- viewable mailbox. All of your responses (including all responsive records) may be instantly and automatically available to the public online via the MuckRock.com FOIA service used to issue this request (though the requester is an anonymous user, not a representative of MuckRock). Nothing herein is legal, IT, or professional advice of any kind. The author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to all warranties of merchantability or fitness. In no event shall the author be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or any other damages whatsoever. The digital signature, if any, in this email is not an indication of a binding agreement or offer; it merely authenticates the sender. Please do not include any confidential information, as I intend that these communications with the City all be disclosable public records.

Thank you for your response but DPA did not respond in accordance with the Sunshine Ordinance.

I issued Paul Henderson an immediate disclosure request on Dec. 3, 2019 from this email address.
Mr. Henderson or his delegate within DPA was required to respond the next business day, either with the responsive records, stating no records, stating that maximum deadlines apply of 10 days (and then after 10 days, a maximum of 14-day extension if you so desired).

Instead you responded initially on Jan 7 over a month later without any stated extension date and finally stated "no records" on Feb 7 over two months later. The fact that you have never issued proper response cover letters for other requesters cannot take over 2 months to determine.

A complaint for untimely response will be filed with the SOTF (violation of SFAC 67.25). I intend to fully track all violations of DPA, like I track every other agency's violations.

My purpose for auditing the City's agencies' records response is very simple: a good percentage of the agencies either willfully don't comply or are ignorant of all the provisions of the Ordinance.

I hope DPA takes this opportunity to specifically train your staff on all of the particularities of the voter-approved Sunshine Ordinance instead of fighting me on every request. DPA does not get special exceptions to the Ordinance. Even SFPD admits its untimeliness when I make requests of them instead of coming up with excuses.

Anonymous

NOTE: Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. The email address sending this request is a publicly- viewable mailbox. All of your responses (including all responsive records) may be instantly and automatically available to the public online via the MuckRock.com FOIA service used to issue this request (though the requester is an anonymous user, not a representative of MuckRock). Nothing herein is legal, IT, or professional advice of any kind. The author disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to all warranties of merchantability or fitness. In no event shall the author be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or any other damages whatsoever. The digital signature, if any, in this email is not an indication of a binding agreement or offer; it merely authenticates the sender. Please do not include any confidential information, as I intend that these communications with the City all be disclosable public records.