Text and Chat Messages - Immediate Disclosure Request - San Francisco Universal Search (DPH)
It is a clone of this request.
| Tracking # |
21-81 |
| Submitted | Dec. 5, 2020 |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
To Department of Public Health and its Department Head or Elected Official:
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
Every department head/elected official must preserve and maintain all correspondence in a professional and businesslike manner (SFAC 67.29-7(a)) and also separately must comply with retention policies (SFAC 67.29-1). Note that if your retention policies do not retain text messages, I will argue before the SOTF and court that this is a failure to maintain **all correspondence** in a professional and businesslike manner.
Relevant precedent: SOTF 19098 - Anonymous v SFPD. Unanimous finding of violation for unlawfully withholding text message metadata (including the to/from/etc. - note SFPD had provided the dates and times, and you must as well), and also for unlawfully printing and scanning electronic records which does not constitute a "copy" of an electronic record.
See also prior rulings in my favor in SOTF 19044, 19047, 19091, 19098, 19103, and 19108 which ruled against the City for email, text messages, past and future calendar entries, meeting details, electronic metadata, and attachments.
The Mayor's Office appears to have destroyed their copies of certain text messages. I'd be happy to get them from her, if she preserved every record. Alas she did not, therefore we must now conduct a universal search of the City. You cannot refer me to another department unless you search and determine that you have no copies in your department. If this is causing more work for you, ask your Mayor to stop destroying her public records.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
1. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between Grant Colfax and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
2. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between Tomas Aragon and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
3. This is a regular records request for text, chat, or instant messages between the other dept employees (not Colfax or Aragon) and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
To DPH and its Department Head or Elected Official:
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
Every department head/elected official must preserve and maintain all correspondence in a professional and businesslike manner (SFAC 67.29-7(a)) and also separately must comply with retention policies (SFAC 67.29-1). Note that if your retention policies do not retain text messages, I will argue before the SOTF and court that this is a failure to maintain **all correspondence** in a professional and businesslike manner.
Relevant precedent: SOTF 19098 - Anonymous v SFPD. Unanimous finding of violation for unlawfully withholding text message metadata (including the to/from/etc. - note SFPD had provided the dates and times, and you must as well), and also for unlawfully printing and scanning electronic records which does not constitute a "copy" of an electronic record.
See also prior rulings in my favor in SOTF 19044, 19047, 19091, 19098, 19103, and 19108 which ruled against the City for email, text messages, past and future calendar entries, meeting details, electronic metadata, and attachments.
The Mayor's Office appears to have destroyed their copies of certain text messages. I'd be happy to get them from her, if she preserved every record. Alas she did not, therefore we must now conduct a universal search of the City. You cannot refer me to another department unless you search and determine that you have no copies in your department. If this is causing more work for you, ask your Mayor to stop destroying her public records.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
1. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between the Department Head/Elected Official and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
2. This is a regular records request for text, chat, or instant messages between any non-department head/elected official (i.e. the other dept employees) and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
TOMAS ARAGON:
You remain a city employee as of this email. This is a NEW Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA request.
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
4. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between TOMAS ARAGON and either Gov. NEWSOM, Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 5, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following California Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 5, 2020. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
Supervisor of Records Dennis Herrera:
67.21(d) petition:
DPH, Grant Colfax, and Tomas Aragon refuse to comply with requests for public records from this email address from Dec 5-8, 2020.
Please determine in writing that one or more records or parts thereof not disclosed are public and order them disclosed.
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Your first City and County of San Francisco record request (request number #21-80) has been submitted.
It is currently unpublished and is not available for the general public to view.
As the requester, you can always see the status of your
request by signing into the City and County of San Francisco Public Records
portal here.
If you haven't already activated your account,
click here to get started.
Once your account is activated, your request will be visible at the following link:
Request #21-80.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Your record request #21-81 has been submitted.
It is currently under review and is not available for the general public to view.
As the requester, you can always see the status of your request
by signing in to the City and County of San Francisco Public Records Request
site here.
If you haven't already signed in to your account, you may need
to activate your account to sign in.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Record request #21-81 has been closed and published. The closure reason supplied was:
We have finished conducting a diligent search and found no documents responsive to your request. Therefore, we consider your request closed.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
January 12, 2020
Dear Requester,
We apologize for the delayed response.
We are in receipt of your two immediate disclosure requests (letter attached) and have inputted them into our system accordingly.
1. Request #21-80<https://sanfrancisco.nextrequest.com/requests/21-80> from December 5, 2020.
* This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between the Department Head/Elected Official and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
* This is a regular records request for text, chat, or instant messages between any non-department head/elected official (i.e. the other dept employees) and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
2. Request #21-81<https://sanfrancisco.nextrequest.com/requests/21-81> from December 8, 2020.
* This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between TOMAS ARAGON and either Gov. NEWSOM, Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
In regards to Request #21-80, we are working diligently to gather responsive records for items #1 and #2. We would prefer to work with you to get you responsive records in a reasonable manner. In light of the current pandemic and local health emergency, this request will involve use of scarce public resources. Therefore, as we gather responsive records to your request, we may ask for your help to provide any concepts or terms that can help narrow the search and review, to help facilitate the review. We appreciate your understanding.
In regards to Request #21-81, we have conducted a diligent search for records and we must inform you that the Department of Public Health does not have responsive records for this item. Therefore, this concludes PRA Request #21-81.
Sincerely,
Veronica Vien
Public Information Officer
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
A message was sent to you regarding record request #21-80:
Dear Anonymous,
In regards to Request #21-80, Item #1, after conducting a thorough search for responsive records dating back to Dr. Grant Colfax’s hire date (February 2019), the scope of the request and volume of records it covers will place a huge and unreasonable burden on this department in producing and reviewing responsive records, and will make it impossible for us to comply with the request in a reasonably prompt manner. In light of the current pandemic and local health emergency and scarce public resources currently available, we invite you to narrow your request, so that we might fully respond to the request within a reasonably prompt time frame. We appreciate your understanding and help in facilitating the review.
Please let us know how we can work with you to move forward with narrowing the initial production for item #1.
Thank you.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
Dear Anonymous,
In regards to Request #21-80, Item #1, after conducting a thorough search for responsive records dating back to Dr. Grant Colfax's hire date (February 2019), the scope of the request and volume of records it covers will place a huge and unreasonable burden on this department in producing and reviewing responsive records, and will make it impossible for us to comply with the request in a reasonably prompt manner. In light of the current pandemic and local health emergency and scarce public resources currently available, we invite you to narrow your request, so that we might fully respond to the request within a reasonably prompt time frame. We appreciate your understanding and help in facilitating the review.
Please let us know how we can work with you to move forward with narrowing the initial production for item #1.
Thank you.
Veronica Vien
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
Please tell me roughly how many such text/chat messages Mr. Colfax has with Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, and what the date ranges are, then I can narrow the request. Is it a 100? 1000? 1 year, 10 years? etc.
Please do not destroy records until this request is finally complete.
From: Department of Public Health
Hi again,
We are estimating upwards of 1,000 responsive texts from Feb 2019 to present. Please let us know how you would like to narrow the date ranges.
Thanks again,
Veronica
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
I am willing to narrow the request from Dec 30, 2019 to present - most importantly I want to capture all decision making since COVID was discovered.
For which parties are there texts? Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong?
I can give you some prioritization if I know who is involved.
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Documents have been released for record request #21-80:
* Amy Brownell 01 AB - redacted.png
* Ana Validzic 01 SE.jpg
* Greg Wagner 01 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 02 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 03 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 04 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 05 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 06 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 07 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 08 SE.png
* Greg Wagner 09 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 10 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 11 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 12 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 13 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 14 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 15 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 16 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 17 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 18 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 19 AB.png
* Greg Wagner 20 Grp.png
* Greg Wagner 21 Grp.png
* Greg Wagner 22 NK.png
* Greg Wagner 23 NK.png
* Greg Wagner 24 NK.png
* Natalie Pojman 01 Grp.PNG
* Natalie Pojman 02 AB.PNG
* Natalie Pojman 03 AB.PNG
* Natalie Pojman 04 AB - original.PNG
* Natalie Pojman 04 AB - redacted.png
* Natalie Pojman 05 AB.PNG
* Naveena Bobba 01 Grp - redacted.jpg
* Naveena Bobba 02 NK.jpg
* Naveena Bobba 03 NK.jpg
Document links are valid for one month.
After February 27, you will need to sign in to view the document(s).
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<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
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Ana20Validzic200120SE
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Amy20Brownell200120AB20-20redacted
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Greg20Wagner200120SE
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Greg20Wagner200220SE
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Greg20Wagner200320SE
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Greg20Wagner200420SE
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Greg20Wagner200520SE
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Greg20Wagner200620SE
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Greg20Wagner200720SE
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Greg20Wagner200820SE
There are too many files to display on this communication. See all files
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
Please make this request completely publicly visible. I will not create/login to any accounts.
thanks
From: Department of Public Health
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City and County of San Francisco
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From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Record request #21-80 has been published and is now available for public view.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
Dear requester,
Thank you for your patience.
In regards to Request #21-80, item 1, we anticipate Dr. Colfax to have texts with Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Naomi Kelly. Given that there are hundreds of texts total, we are asking for your help to prioritize a certain individual so we can get a better estimate of texts he has with each individual. Additionally, to help further facilitate the review, we may ask for your help to narrow the timeframe of the request to 2-3 months. Can you please let us know which month(s) you are most interested in searching first? We would prefer to work with you to get you responsive records in a reasonable manner.
We appreciate your help,
Veronica
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
I am willing to prioritize but not to permanently narrow this request. If Colfax is willing to sign on official letterhead that he will retain and will not destroy any records responsive to my original un-narrowed request of Dec 5, 2020 (this includes that Colfax must not allow any automatic expiration or destruction of messages to occur on any accounts), then I will give a prioritization. Please produce such a signed letter from Colfax if you wish to proceed.
From: Department of Public Health
Hi,
For request #21-80, I will work on looking into your proposed option in terms of prioritizing the timeframe. Meanwhile, will you kindly prioritize the individuals you would like us to start working on so we can work on estimating the # of texts for each individual you. We anticipated Dr. Colfax to have texts with Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, and Naomi Kelly from Dec 1019 -Dec 2020.
Thanks,
Veronica
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
Breed is most important and Elsbernd second most important. No productions for any time will be waived until you produce the agreement to retain records. I will not allow you and Colfax to conspire to keep the exercise of emergency authority and decision making from the public as you have done with the Aragon records as they get lost to time.
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Record request #21-80 has been closed and published. The closure reason supplied was:
This concludes your public records request.
************************************************************************
<em>Questions about your request?</em> Reply to this email or sign in to contact staff at City and County of San Francisco.<br></br><em>Technical support:</em> See our <a href='https://www.nextrequest.com/support'>help page</a>
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
Documents have been released for record request #21-80 along with the following message:
Please find the legal justifications for every redaction which are cross-referenced to the document names.
20-80_Me_Mayor_London_Breed_Redacted_v1.pdf
* 7 A city employee cell phone number was redacted due to privacy concerns. (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(c); Internat. Federation of Prof. & Technical Engineers, Local 21, AFL-CIO v. Super. Ct. (2007) 42 Cal.4th 319, 339 [while names and salaries of City employees must be disclosed, the “City has not been asked to disclose any contact information for these employees, such as home addresses or telephone numbers”].)
* 8–9 Information was redacted under the official information privilege. (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(k).) This privilege is codified in California Evidence Code section 1040, which defines “official information” as “information acquired in confidence by a public employee in the course of his or her duty and not open, or officially disclosed, to the public prior to the time the claim of privilege is made.” (Id. at § 1040(a).)
* 17 Information was redacted as non-responsive because “[c]ommunications that are primarily personal, containing no more than incidental mentions of agency business, generally will not constitute public records.” (City of San Jose v. Super. Ct. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 608, 619.)
* 19 A cell phone number of the public was redacted because such personal contact information implicates the privacy rights of individuals and typically sheds no light on DPH’s operations. (Cal. Gov’t. Code § 6254(c).)
* 20 Information was redacted as “personnel, medical, or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(c).)
* 20–22 Information was redacted as non-responsive because “[c]ommunications that are primarily personal, containing no more than incidental mentions of agency business, generally will not constitute public records.” (City of San Jose v. Super. Ct. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 608, 619.)
20-80_Me_Sean_Elsbernd_1_Redacted_v1.pdf
* 3–4, 112 Information was redacted as “personnel, medical, or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(c).)
* 9, 25, 36, 38–39, 45–46, 98, Information was redacted under the official information privilege. (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(k).) This privilege is codified in California Evidence Code section 1040, which defines “official information” as “information acquired in confidence by a public employee in the course of his or her duty and not open, or officially disclosed, to the public prior to the time the claim of privilege is made.” (Id. at § 1040(a).)
* 16, 19, 51, 85 Information was redacted as non-responsive because “[c]ommunications that are primarily personal, containing no more than incidental mentions of agency business, generally will not constitute public records.” (City of San Jose v. Super. Ct. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 608, 619.)
* 19 City employees cell phone numbers were redacted due to privacy concerns. (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(c); Internat. Federation of Prof. & Technical Engineers, Local 21, AFL-CIO v. Super. Ct. (2007) 42 Cal.4th 319, 339 [while names and salaries of City employees must be disclosed, the “City has not been asked to disclose any contact information for these employees, such as home
addresses or telephone numbers”].)
* 35, 74, 88 DPH does not disclose personal contact information for members of the public because such personal contact information implicates the privacy rights of individuals and typically sheds no light on DPH’s operations. (Cal. Gov’t. Code § 6254(c).)
* 28–29, 80–83, 87, 93–95, 103 Redactions of author recommendations were redacted. Such redactions are authorized under San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.24(a)(1).
* 11, 30, 40, 73, 97, 104–106 The Public Records Act allows an agency to decline to disclose “[r]ecords, the disclosure of which is exempted or prohibited pursuant to federal or state law, including, but limited to, provisions of the Evidence Code relating to privilege.” (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(k).) California Evidence Code section 954 protects from disclosure communications between attorneys and their clients. Disclosure of communications between the DPH and the City Attorney’s Office would chill DPH’s ability to discuss candidly issues on which legal advice is sought.
20-80_Me_Sean_Elsbernd_2_Redacted_v1.pdf
* 31, 35, 50 Information was redacted under the official information privilege. (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(k).) This privilege is codified in California Evidence Code section 1040, which defines “official information” as “information acquired in confidence by a public employee in the course of his or her duty and not open, or officially disclosed, to the public prior to the time the claim of privilege is made.” (Id. at § 1040(a).)
* 9, 13, 18, 36 DPH does not disclose personal contact information for members of the public because such personal contact information implicates the privacy rights of individuals and typically sheds no light on DPH’s operations. (Cal. Gov’t. Code § 6254(c).)
* 1, 6, 35–36 DPH does not disclose ‘personnel, medical, or similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.’ (Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(c).)
* 4, 26 Redactions of author recommendations were redacted. Such redactions are authorized under San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.24(a)(1).
* 20, 44 Non-responsive because “[c]ommunications that are primarily personal, containing no more than incidental mentions of agency business, generally will not constitute public records.” (City of San Jose v. Super. Ct. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 608, 619.)
* 20-80_Me_Mayor_London_Breed_Redacted_v1_Redacted_04.05.2021.pdf
* 20-80_Me_Sean_Elsbernd_1_Redacted_v1_Redacted_04.05.2021.pdf
* 20-80_Me_Sean_Elsbernd_2_Redacted_v1pdf_Redacted_04.06.2021_Redacted.pdf
Document links are valid for one month.
After June 6, you will need to sign in to view the document(s).
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From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
RE: 21-80 - Thank you.
1) But why did you close this request? You still need to produce the remainder of the records. All I said is that Breed and Elsbernd are most important, not that I was waiving the other participants, like Bruss or Kelly. Please produce the remainder on a rolling basis.
2) We are challenging and will file complaints on all redactions based on recommendation of the author. The City continues to misunderstand Admin Code 67.24(a)(1). All recommendations of authors are not exempt - that would merely be using the deliberative process privilege under a different name as it is prohibited by Admin Code 67.24(h). Only a *draft* recommendation of the author is exempt, not all recommendations. And any factual content must be released as well within those messages. For example, if Colfax hypothetically initially recommends shutting down restaurants and bars, and then finally recommends shutting down only bars then only the first recommendation is exempt as a *draft*. If the recommendations made by Colfax are not drafts and are his final recommendations they need to be disclosed.
3) We are challenging and will file complaints on all redactions based on official information privilege. The City continues to misunderstand Evidence Code 1040. Evid Code 1040(a) that you cited merely defined official information; it does not exempt it. Only *some* not all official information is exempt - those exemptions are defined in Evid Code 1040(b)(1) and (b)(2) and you must cite which of the two exemptions you are using. The first exempts information whose disclosure is prohibited by state or federal law (if you are using (b)(1) please state that other law prohibiting disclosure). The second is a balancing test in the interest of justice (if you are using (b)(2) please explain in detail how disclosing each of those messages would harm the interest of justice).
DPH bears the burden of proof in showing how these exemptions apply to each redacted message.
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
See attached combined petition under 67.21(d) for two DPH requests.
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
See attached combined petition under 67.21(d) for two DPH requests.
From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
CORRECTION: The attached 67.21(d) petition for two DPH requests replaces the petition you received earlier today.
From: Department of Public Health
City and County of San Francisco
************************************************************************
Hi there
A message was sent to you regarding record request #21-80:
Dear Requester,
To clarify, other from Mayor Breed and Sean Elsbernd, Dr. Colfax has not communicated with the other parties listed in your request.
Thank you for your understanding.
************************************************************************
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From: twitter.com/journo_anon Public Records Requester
RE #21-80:
Got it. In addition to the objections to redactions I have also challenged in the attached appeal withholding of attachments - please see para #1.
From: Department of Public Health
To Whom It May Concern -
We understand that the Department of Public Health produced the records in its possession responsive to your request dated December 5, 2020 on January 27, 2021 and May 6, 2021. With regard to your request dated December 8, 2020, the department confirmed on January 12, 2021, that it had no responsive records. Accordingly, we believe the department has addressed the concern raised in your petition and consider it closed. Thank you.
Bradley Russi
Deputy City Attorney
Office of City Attorney David Chiu
City Hall, Room 234
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl., San Francisco, CA 94102
www.sfcityattorney.org
From: requests@muckrock.com <requests@muckrock.com>
Sent: Monday, January 4, 2021 1:00 PM
To: Supervisor Records (CAT) <supervisor.records@SFCITYATTY.ORG>
Subject: RE: California Public Records Act Request: Text and Chat Messages - Immediate Disclosure Request - San Francisco Universal Search (DPH)
Department of Public Health
PRA Office
Room 302
101 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
January 4, 2021
This is a follow up to a previous request:
Supervisor of Records Dennis Herrera:
67.21(d) petition:
DPH, Grant Colfax, and Tomas Aragon refuse to comply with requests for public records from this email address from Dec 5-8, 2020.
Please determine in writing that one or more records or parts thereof not disclosed are public and order them disclosed.
Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Is this email coming to the wrong contact? Something else wrong? Use the above link to let us know.
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 105584
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
---
On Dec. 8, 2020:
Subject: RE: California Public Records Act Request: Text and Chat Messages - Immediate Disclosure Request - San Francisco Universal Search (DPH)
TOMAS ARAGON:
You remain a city employee as of this email. This is a NEW Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA request.
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
4. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between TOMAS ARAGON and either Gov. NEWSOM, Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
---
On Dec. 5, 2020:
Subject: RE: California Public Records Act Request: Text and Chat Messages - Immediate Disclosure Request - San Francisco Universal Search (DPH)
To DPH and its Department Head or Elected Official:
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
Every department head/elected official must preserve and maintain all correspondence in a professional and businesslike manner (SFAC 67.29-7(a)) and also separately must comply with retention policies (SFAC 67.29-1). Note that if your retention policies do not retain text messages, I will argue before the SOTF and court that this is a failure to maintain **all correspondence** in a professional and businesslike manner.
Relevant precedent: SOTF 19098 - Anonymous v SFPD. Unanimous finding of violation for unlawfully withholding text message metadata (including the to/from/etc. - note SFPD had provided the dates and times, and you must as well), and also for unlawfully printing and scanning electronic records which does not constitute a "copy" of an electronic record.
See also prior rulings in my favor in SOTF 19044, 19047, 19091, 19098, 19103, and 19108 which ruled against the City for email, text messages, past and future calendar entries, meeting details, electronic metadata, and attachments.
The Mayor's Office appears to have destroyed their copies of certain text messages. I'd be happy to get them from her, if she preserved every record. Alas she did not, therefore we must now conduct a universal search of the City. You cannot refer me to another department unless you search and determine that you have no copies in your department. If this is causing more work for you, ask your Mayor to stop destroying her public records.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
1. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between the Department Head/Elected Official and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
2. This is a regular records request for text, chat, or instant messages between any non-department head/elected official (i.e. the other dept employees) and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
---
On Dec. 5, 2020:
Subject: California Public Records Act Request: Text and Chat Messages - Immediate Disclosure Request - San Francisco Universal Search (DPH)
To Department of Public Health and its Department Head or Elected Official:
** DO NOT DESTROY ANY RESPONSIVE RECORDS. YOU MUST PRESERVE AND ORDER YOUR EMPLOYEES TO PRESERVE RECORDS DURING THE PENDENCY OF ALL APPEALS. WE WILL APPEAL ALL REDACTIONS OR WITHHOLDINGS. ** Immediate Disclosure Request.
Every department head/elected official must preserve and maintain all correspondence in a professional and businesslike manner (SFAC 67.29-7(a)) and also separately must comply with retention policies (SFAC 67.29-1). Note that if your retention policies do not retain text messages, I will argue before the SOTF and court that this is a failure to maintain **all correspondence** in a professional and businesslike manner.
Relevant precedent: SOTF 19098 - Anonymous v SFPD. Unanimous finding of violation for unlawfully withholding text message metadata (including the to/from/etc. - note SFPD had provided the dates and times, and you must as well), and also for unlawfully printing and scanning electronic records which does not constitute a "copy" of an electronic record.
See also prior rulings in my favor in SOTF 19044, 19047, 19091, 19098, 19103, and 19108 which ruled against the City for email, text messages, past and future calendar entries, meeting details, electronic metadata, and attachments.
The Mayor's Office appears to have destroyed their copies of certain text messages. I'd be happy to get them from her, if she preserved every record. Alas she did not, therefore we must now conduct a universal search of the City. You cannot refer me to another department unless you search and determine that you have no copies in your department. If this is causing more work for you, ask your Mayor to stop destroying her public records.
Note there are many anonymous requesters using MuckRock - I am just one of them. If you previously produced some subset of these records to a MuckRock email address, please reference that prior response so you do not duplicate work. If I am unable to get the prior MuckRock response because it is someone else's and they have marked it private, you will however need to provide me a copy here as well.
1. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between Grant Colfax and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
2. This is an immediate disclosure request for text, chat, or instant messages between Tomas Aragon and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
3. This is a regular records request for text, chat, or instant messages between the other dept employees (not Colfax or Aragon) and either Sean Elsbernd, Andrea Bruss, London Breed, Harlan Kelly, Jr., Naomi Kelly, Hank Heckel, or Walter Wong, including all group messages, and all messages in threads, in any form and any app (including, but not limited to, SMS, MMS, text, iMessage, Teams, Discord, WeChat, QQ, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Hangouts, Meet, Slack, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Kik, FaceTime, Wickr Me, Chatroulette, Threema, KakaoTalk, Duo, GroupMe, Wire, Voxer, Allo, Tango, Bumble, Grindr, Tinder, Olive, Taimi, but NOT including email), on any government accounts/devices or on personal accounts or devices regarding the conduct of public business, including all participant names, message text, images, attachments, dates, and times, including any in trash or deleted folders or similar (see Good Government Guide - if the records have not been permanently deleted as of the time you receive this request, you must retrieve them from the so-called trash folders and provide them). Provide rolling responses. Provide exact copies including all metadata. There is no limitation by subject or date. If the total pages to produce numbers over 500, inform me of the rough dates, employees involved, and subject matter, and I may be willing to narrow the initial production, AS LONG AS YOU PRESERVE ALL THE RECORDS.
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.
Your non-exhaustive obligations:
- All withholding of any information must be justified in writing by specific statutory authority (SFAC 67.27).
- Every redaction must be keyed by footnote or by other clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld (SFAC 67.26).
- You must respond to emailed requests (SFAC 67.21(b)).
- You must notify us of whether or not responsive records exist and/or were withheld for each above request (Gov Code 6253(c), 6255(b)).
- You must state the name and title of each person responsible for withholding any information (Gov Code 6253(d)).
- Do not impose any end-user restrictions upon me (Santa Clara Co. vs Superior Ct, 170 Cal.App 4th 1301); so if you use a third-party website to publish records, please make them completely public without any login or sign-in.
Your agency must do all of the above things in your response, and you cannot wait until we file complaints.
****** We have no duty to, and we will not again, remind the City of its obligations. Instead, we will file complaints for every Sunshine Ordinance or CPRA violation. We will continue to file complaints until the City's procedures are modified to fully comply with the Sunshine Ordinance and CPRA, without caveat or exception. ******
I look forward to your lawful response.
NOTE: THE EMAIL ADDRESS SENDING THIS REQUEST IS A PUBLICLY-VIEWABLE MAILBOX. Please be certain you have properly redacted all of your responses. Once you send them to us, there is no going back. 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.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
Filed via MuckRock.com
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