Get Smart About The Public’s Right to Know

Want to know how much the Los Altos School District superintendent makes? The new city manager? Her staff? Those are open records.

Want to watch Los Altos officials deliberate and decide what to do about a proposed development? That's an open meeting. 

, which began Sunday, March 11. As part of the observance, we want to share with you some of the open government resources available to anyone. 

You have the right to see the records the government keeps—from health inspection reports to employee salaries to the entire municipal or school district budget—and to be present at the meetings where governmental business gets done.

The expectation is that government is open—and if your elected leaders want to close a meeting or keep a document confidential, they need to say why. And in most cases, they aren't allowed to ask who you are or why you want to see the record you're requesting.

If you know of an open government issue you'd like Los Altos Patch to look into, email Editor L.A. Chung, lachung@patch.com

There are a host of free, easy-to-understand and useful resources for you to help you understand what you are entitled to under local and state and federal laws. Here are a few of the best that we’ve selected for you:

• The Reporters Committee has an Open Government Guide for California open records laws.
• The Reporters Committee also offers a federal Open Government Guide and The Digital Journalist’s Legal Guide.
• The Knight Citizen News Network’s The Citizen Journalist’s Guide to Open Government.
• SunshineWeek.org has a host of resources on its site. http://www.sunshineweek.org/ReadingRoom.aspx.  
• The First Amendment Coalition website has an extensive array of resources on First Amendment issues and its new free iPhone and Android Know Your Rights app, iOpenGov.  
• CalAware, a group dedicated to government transparency in the state that keeps up to date tabs on transparency cases across the state and has helped develop and promote local open government initiatives in Alameda, Berkeley and Dixon., is an excellent resource.
• The California League of Cities has an excellent Open & Public IV: Guide to the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s public meetings law.
• TheFirst Amendment.org has these useful guides on California public records and court documents: Pocket Guide to the California Public Records Act and the Pocket Guide to Courts & Court Records.

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