Scoop snoop

Brian Joseph over at the Orange County Register filed a public records request to discover where other reporters and public interest groups have been digging around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's right - in most cases the law says even other people's letters requesting public records are ... public records. He writes:

"This is a common technique among reporters. Looking at other people's requests can tell you what documents are out there or, admittedly, what your competition is doing. I filed the same request with the Department of Finance and received records 10 days later.

Joseph discovered a conflicting set of rules for state agencies, the governor's office, and the state Legislature. The governor rejected his request outright, citing an exemption for correspondence with the chief executive. So in this case, Joseph was not allowed to snoop around and find out what other reporters are doing. Thanks Arnold!

Friday Roundup

• Phil Angelides hobnobs with the B-list in Hollywood and tries to get some heat from comedian George Lopez. But better yet, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong "mingles with former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, outed CIA operative Valerie Plame." Tina Daunt gets the lowdown.
• Andy Stern hangs out with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger but supports Angelides. Meet the union powerhouse in a Fortune magazine profile, complete with a macabre black-and-white photograph of Stern, head of SEIU, looking like he's conjuring demons.
• LAUSD hires a new schools superintendent while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa travels in Asia. Beautiful.
• Schwarzenegger wins 2003 recall with promise to open government. Unseats Gov. Gray Davis. Then, like Davis, he vetoes legislation making it easier to open government records to public scrutiny. Newspaper publishers say Arnold needs to do the right thing.
• Having trouble remembering wuzzup on the November ballot? Sing the Proposition Song.

Secret Government

The public can see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's daily calendar, but much of the information is along the lines of "meeting with chief of staff." We often can't find out the subject of the meeting, for example.

Peter Scheer at the First Amendment Coalition writes about a San Bernardino County supervisor trying to protect his work calendar. The supervisor hasn't gotten the message yet about open government, according to Scheer.

He writes:

"By analogy to the federal scheme, only Schwarzenegger can invoke the deliberative process privilege to withhold records under the Public Records Act. The privilege is not available to his aides or department heads since they do not symbolize or represent state sovereignty. And it certainly isn’t available to officials at the local level of government."