Shasta Scout and the Record Searchlight Push Back on Shasta County’s Unlawful Barrier to Public Access

On July 6, 2023, a program manager with Shasta County’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) responded to one of Shasta Scout’s routine records requests with a response that was anything but typical, an assessed fee of nearly $2500 for access to government documents.

A journalist with Shasta Scout had asked the county agency for annual financial summaries related to the county’s role as the NorCal Continuum of Care’s lead agency, including how much money the county had received from state and federal grant sources, and how that funding had been distributed. 

It seemed like a simple enough request, but more than two months later, Shasta Scout has still not received the information. That’s because finding and preparing those documents, HHSA staff Program Manager Lisa Allen wrote in the county’s official response letter, would likely cost Shasta Scout $2,450.

The fee estimate was based on a Shasta County ordinance that was passed in January 2021 in the midst of public uproar over COVID restrictions, and which has been in place since then. That ordinance allows the county to charge a “cost recovery fee” for the actual time spent in excess of two hours of employee time to “locate, retrieve, review, prepare, copy, and furnish” documents. 

That ordinance is invalid, say attorneys from the First Amendment Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California in a demand letter sent today, September 20, to Shasta County, because it blocks the public’s right to access by imposing unlawful fees. 

Fees which, according to the FAC and ACLU’s letter, create an unjustified financial barrier to exercising rights to transparency guaranteed by both the California Constitution and the California Public Records Act. Something, the FAC and ACLU say, that was recently confirmed by the California Supreme Court. 

That’s why, attorneys David Loy with the FAC and Chessie Thatcher with the ACLU, told the county today that if Shasta’s unlawful fee ordinance is not repealed by October 18, they plan to file suit on behalf of Shasta Scout and the Record Searchlight. 

Since beginning to publish in June 2021, Shasta Scout has been issuing regular Public Records Requests to the county and many other local government agencies in order to access source documents that inform our reporting and provide the public with access to the work being done and decisions being made by local elected officials. Many of our biggest and most important stories have been based on public documents accessed through such records requests. 

While the California Public Records Act does allow government agencies to charge for the cost of copying records for the public, including the press, it does not allow additional fees to be levied to locate and prepare those documents for public use.

Prior to June of this year we have never been charged fees by the county to access such source documents. But since late June, Shasta Scout has received numerous responses to public records requests estimating similar fees for locating and preparing documents. In every case we have chosen to forgo our access to those documents because the county’s estimated fees are cost prohibitive, and paying for information that should be freely accessible is an unacceptable barrier to performing our work.  

This has resulted in a significant disruption in our ability to share vital information with you, the public, as an independent watchdog to government affairs. It has also created significant barriers for other public officials across the North State, whose access to records such as the NorCal Continuum of Care’s annual financial data would allow them to more quickly, and effectively conduct the public’s business. In particular, lack of access to the NorCal Continuum of Care financial records has impeded the work of officials across seven North State counties as they seek to secure access to hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal and state housing funding for their communities next year. 

In a statement released this morning, September 20, the FAC emphasized that the county should urgently comply with the demand for its ordinance to be repealed.

“​​Time is of the essence,” the FAC statement says, “because every day that the Ordinance remains in effect, the public is subject to a financial barrier depriving them of their transparency rights under the CPRA and California Constitution.”

In addition to seeking repeal of the ordinance, the FAC and ACLU’s letter demands that the county refund fees assessed under the ordinance and withdraw any pending charges for such fees.

Shasta Scout is proud to be working with our legal partners at FAC and the ACLU of Northern California as well as our fellow journalists and editors at the Record Searchlight to continue to advocate for lawful access to the source documents that we depend on to fulfill our mission to provide news for the people in support of a strong democracy. 

We’re news for the people and we will continue to insist on access for the people.

Have questions, concerns, or comments? Reach out to us: editor@shastascout.org

Additional resources: 

• See Shasta County’s Public Records ordinance here.
• See fees assessed in response to a request for communications to/from the county’s HHSA director Laura Burch, regarding homelessness. ($4,750)
• See fees assessed in response to a request for records of county outreach at the Mercy Canyon encampment. ($2,500)
• See fees assessed in response to a request for HUD grant applications and awards here. ($825)