Public Records Request

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for your e-mail. Enclosed please find a response to your public record request that you sent on July 3 and that we received on July 6. In the request, you ask for the following;

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, Cal. Gov't Code §6250 et seq., and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance, SF Admin. Code Ch. 67, I hereby request the following:

1) All records related to the development, production, or promotion of the podcast "Chasing Justice," co-hosted by District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Rachel Marshall ("the Podcast"). This request includes, but is not limited to: records of consulting services, production or post-production services, equipment and software, web design and development, or marketing for the Podcast.

2) All records reflecting time spent by any employee of the San Francisco District Attorney's Office related to the Podcast.

3) All records reflecting any costs incurred by, expenses paid by, or invoices billed to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office related to the Podcast.

For the purpose of these requests, the term "records" includes, but is not limited to: memoranda, emails, text messages, electronic platform messages (e.g. Twitter, Messenger, Slack, Hangout, WhatsApp, Telegram), contracts, invoices, expense reports, receipts, and timesheets or calendar entries.
Under the Public Records Act and the Sunshine Ordinance, a "public record" is broadly defined to include "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 the physical form or characteristics." Cal. Govt. Code §6252(e). If the department has no records responsive to the specific request, the department has no duty to create or recreate one.
Processing your request requires an extensive and time consuming search, and may require examining a voluminous amount of possibly responsive and non-privileged records. Additionally, there may be a need to consult with another city agency on some of the records once they are discovered.
In addition, pursuant to Mayor London Breed's March 30 Temporary Modification of Public Records Law During COVID-19 Local Emergency, agencies are not required to comply with records requests within ten days or seek a 14 day extension, so long as they provide updates within ten days (which we are doing here). We cannot provide an estimated date yet but will keep you informed and encourage you to check in. Hope you are staying safe and healthy.
Best,
Alex

Hi Anonymous,

We are still processing your request. We are hopeful to have an update for you by the end of the week.
Best,
Alex

Dear Anonymous,

Under the Public Records Act and the Sunshine Ordinance, a "public record" is broadly defined to include "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 the physical form or characteristics." Cal. Govt. Code §6252(e). If the department has no records responsive to the specific request, the department has no duty to create or recreate one. Additionally, records that contain the work product of an attorney for the People of the State of California are protected from disclosure. Cal. Govt. Code § 6254(k); Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §2018.030. The attorney work-product doctrine functions as a privilege, protecting from disclosure "[a] writing that reflects an attorney's impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal research or theories." Cal. Code Civ. Proc.§ 2018.030(a). The attorney work-product doctrine also extends beyond records prepared for litigation purposes.

Enclosed please find records responsive to your request. We have redacted the personal email addresses and contact information from the documents, based on the privacy protections of California Government Code Section 6254( c) and Article 1, Section 1 of the California Constitution.

Additionally, please also see the following social media pages for additional records responsive to your request.

https://www.instagram.com/chasingjusticepodcast/

https://twitter.com/chasingpodcast?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Chasing-Justice-111764310571606/posts/

Additionally, please see the website here.

https://www.chasingjusticepodcast.com/
Best,
Alex

To whom it may concern:
Thank you for your request. Alex Bastian is no longer with our office, and your request was just forwarded to me. As I do not have the background on your original request, can you clarify for me what you are looking for?
Thank you,
SFDA Public Records

Hi Paul: Attached is the endorsed information. I am trying to obtain the court endorsed complaint, and will send along when I have.
Thanks,
Nikki