Is that the Tracy Press?

Wayne Thallendar, newspaper adviser at Tracy High, took this photo at the season's first football game, with coaches from both Tracy and West high schools.

Update from CNPA

September 14, 2007 Industry supports Tracy Press’ records fight The Tracy Press will file today a writ petition on an adverse Public Records Act ruling that denied it access to records concerning the public’s business solely because the communications were initiated from or received by a private email account. CNPA and many of its members, large and small, are joining an amicus brief in support of the newspaper. To encourage broad support, a special low fee has been established for community newspapers. The Tracy Press sought access to emails between certain counsel members and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Communications involving one counsel member were sent from and received by her home email account and were withheld. The court held that an email about government business, received by a city council member in her personal email account, is not a public record. The reasoning appears to be that an individual council member is not a "local agency," therefore that person's possession of an email, without more, cannot be ascribed to the full council or to the city. Duffy Carolan and Rochelle Wilcox of Davis Wright Tremaine are writing the industry brief. Because the brief will be filed Monday afternoon, Duffy (415) 276-6585 or duffycarolan@dwt.com or Rochelle (916) 962-0677 or rochellewilcox@dwt.com must receive your commitment to participate no later than noon on Monday, September 17. Please contact General Counsel Tom Newton at (916) 288-6015 for more information about this important effort.

Faithful readers

Warms my heart to see all these people reading the Tracy Press this morning. Marvin Rothchild, who used to teach at Tracy High School, reads every weekday morning to residents of Tracy Convalescent Hospital. I think it's time to get a computer in there so Marvin can read the TP Web site on the days we don't publish. Photo by Glenn Moore

Public access denied

Three months to the day after a hearing in Superior Court, Judge Lauren P. Thomasson has issued her ruling on the Tracy Press Inc. v. City of Tracy, City Council and Suzanne Tucker.

The judge denied our request for e-mail records sought in the California Public Records Act.

We're disappointed in the ruling, but we plan to appeal. For background on the case, see my "public access" postings. A news story is in the works.

I've scanned the ruling and posted the pages, below. To read them, you'll have to click on the images to enlarge them, and then hit your back-arrow button to come back to the blog. It's funky, I know, but the best a nontechie editor can do!

Judge's statement