Lawsuit compels county to seek public records training

The Glenn County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to have top-level county personnel trained on handling public record requests following the third lawsuit this year by newspaper publisher Tim Crews.

Crews filed the suit April 10 against the county and clerk-recorder Vince Minto asking the court to order the county to comply with the California Public Records Act, provide training to staff and pay his attorney fees.

The suit claims Crews was denied access to the death certificate, a public record.

Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that limits some public access to birth and death certificates, but records of vital statistics have long been used by reporters and others for a variety of reasons, including tracking causes of death and tracing family history.

California’s response to the Terrorism Prevention Act was to pass a law to “help protect against identity theft.” The law requires that only an authorized person (as defined by law) may receive a “certified copy” of a birth or death record.

The law does not deny the public from viewing the record or obtaining a non-certified photocopy.

The lawsuit alleges that Crews asked for the death certificate of local benefactress Frances King on March 14 and was told by clerk-recorder staff that the record was “secured.”

Calls to the clerk-recorder’s officer were not immediately returned, but according to the suit, none of the respondents have provided any written or oral response to Crews’ request for a public record as of the date the lawsuit was filed.

On Tuesday, Glenn County Supervisors Tracey Quarne offered to organize a training session for county staff and department heads in dealing with the media and requests for public records.

“We keep getting our foot in the blender,” Quarne said. “It’s costly.”

Quarne hopes to schedule the training on June 9, and plans to allow the media to be present.

Orland Police Chief Bob Pasero told the board he had held a similar training for his staff. The only local media present for that training was the Sacramento Valley Mirror.

The Chico Enterprise-Record and Tri-County Newspapers, both of which cover Orland events, were not notified that the training was to occur.

Pasero said public officials should not look at the media as adversaries because what public officials do “is not a secret.”

“Show respect, make wise choices and solve the problem,” Pasero advised the board. “If you are not part of the problem, then you are solving the problem. The Public Record Act is clear. There is not much that is not public.”

The Board of Supervisors authorized Quarne to organize media training for department heads and key staff.

All interested media will be invited, Quarne said.

The board will also request that elected officials attend the training after County Counsel Thomas Agin mentioned that the last two lawsuits over public records involved the departments of District Attorney and the County Clerk/Recorder, both of whom are elected pubic servants.