Welcome
to the new and improved version 2.0 (October 15, 2011) of the
Gov-Access.org website (a project of Access Advocates Inc.) containing government employee
and telephone directories obtained from various state, county and local public
agencies pursuant to the California Public Records Act (CPRA) or through other
sources. The directories are mostly posted in the same format in which they
were received from the agency (although some were changed to Word or PDF)
and since these directories are government records for which no copyright
may be claimed, they may be freely downloaded, used or further distributed by
other members of the public for any lawful purpose. As part of our 2.0 upgrade,
we have added a few paragraphs containing major web page links listing
various California Public Agencies by their type of agency or category of
government business. We also uploaded an additional 20 or so Local,
County, or State Employee or Telephone Directories,
and listed several of the shaky legal grounds
chosen by various California Public Agencies to deny our current and
previous CPRA requests.
We also
inserted a few new paragraphs detailing several other state's online Employee
and Telephone Directories, including those
Directories with unrestricted access to their employee's Direct Telephone
Numbers or Email Addresses, including the online California State
Telephone Directory
(see below) which incidentally, declines or neglects to list thousands of
current state employees and their contact information.
Staff at
Gov-Access.org believe that in addition to the cumbersome and
time-consuming USPS (snail) mail and oftentimes unreadable fax
transmissions (which numbers we are not seeking due in part to fax
numbers’ antiquated technology), members of our group and all other
members of the public have both California Statutory and Constitutional rights
to also communicate with our public servants by the following two methods:
Direct
Email Communication
Direct
Telephone Access
Thus we
are assembling this website to contain a comprehensive listing of the most
important California Public Agency Employee and
Telephone Directories so as to assist "We the People" in easily identifying and
contacting our appropriate public servants through the most efficient and
timely means now available, i.e., by direct phone contact or via email
messages.
As
additional directories are received through further electronic CPRA
requests emailed to other California Public Agencies, those directories
will be uploaded and posted to this site forthwith.
We
eventually intend to post all of the Employee or Telephone Directories for each
of California's 58
counties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_California) and the
482
Incorporated Cities and Towns in California, of which 460 are officially called Cities and 22 are called Towns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incorporated_cities_and_towns_in_California).
We will be seeking to place online many of the below-referenced Employee or
Telephone Directories (of the estimated 9,000 Local, County and California
Public Agency Employee & Telephone Directories subject to
disclosure under the CPRA), including the 360 most important California
State Departments, Divisions, Bureaus, Boards, and Commissions as
listed on this website (http://www.ca.gov/casearch/agencies.aspx);
many of the 371
Independent State, County, City, College & University, School and
Special Law Enforcement Agency Employee or Telephone Directories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_in_California)
(especially those not included or adequately listed in the Incorporated City or
California County Directories we post online); many of the 237 Independent Water District
Employee or Telephone Directories (http://cluster3.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/district.html);
many of the 1,033 Independent School District Employee or Telephone
Directories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_districts_in_California_by_county);
many of the 77
Community College District Employee or Telephone
Directories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges_System);
many of the 78 Independent Local Park & Recreation District
Employee or Telephone Directories (http://www.carpd.net/Members.html); and
many Employee or Telephone Directories from other California Special
Districts (http://www.csda.net/images/stories/membership/csdafactsheet.pdf),
including many of the 372 Fire Protection District Employee or Telephone
Directories, many of the 252 Community Cemetery District Employee or Telephone
Directories, many of the 156 Reclamation Services District Employee or
Telephone Directories, many of the 96 Resource Conservation District Employee or
Telephone Directories, and possibly many other as yet undiscovered or
unexplored local special district or other California Public Agency Employee or
Telephone Directories. But, alas we may not list all of the above
Employee and Telephone Directories as that would entail the listing of 3,161 total directories. For now we are seeking
to obtain, upload and list only approximately 1,000 of the most important or
relevant Employee and Telephone Directories legally available from
California Public Agencies.
Any
viewer of Gov-Access.org is encouraged to submit direct email requests to us so
we may request and obtain other Local, County or State Employee or Telephone
Directories you wish to be included on our website.
Many
thanks to Corey Johnson from California Watch (http://californiawatch.org/) who emailed
us requesting three specific state directories and stated "I
stumbled across your website recently and I absolutely love it." Although we didn't have the
three directories Mr. Johnson requested available online at the time, we soon
obtained and posted two of them online and are in the process of attempting to
obtain the third (CA State Dept of Education).
So keep
those requests coming, and we'll try to obtain any specific public employee
directories subject to disclosure. Our standard CPRA request now
consists of asking for the five below-listed data elements:
Employee
Full Name
Position or Job Title
Department or Agency
Agency
Issued Email Address
Direct Work Telephone Number
Please
note that not all directories listed on our website contain all five data
elements, as many agencies claim that their phone numbers and/or email
addresses are not a matter of public record. We recently filed and
prevailed in a lawsuit against one such agency (who promptly released all
requested data), and are currently litigating against another agency that
also claims their phone numbers and email addresses may not be disclosed under
the CPRA.
It
seems quite strange that in this day and age of routine Internet electronic
access for services to and from government agencies, numerous
taxpayer-supported California Public Agencies still insist that their
employee’s email addresses (and work telephone numbers) will not be released to
our group or to any other members of the public, by routinely asserting the
boilerplate legal claim that "the public interest served by not
disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by
disclosure of the record." [CA Gov't Code section 6255.] The exact claim made
by several counties is as follows:
"County
email addresses and telephone numbers are not provided in the format you
requested in order to prevent proliferation of non-business related telephone
or email traffic such as commercial advertisements and "spam," and to
avoid infection of the County network by viruses, Trojan horses, and worms
transmitted with email message attachments. Such contact can drain network
resources and impacts employee productivity. Release of County telephone
numbers and email addresses in response to CPRA requests would also expose
County networks to disruptive denial-of-service attacks and other related
problems, which would severely hamper the conduct of County business."
Our
position is that the above verbiage is merely speculative, and that all
California Public Agencies adopting such a position are actually fighting a
loosing battle with today's reach of electronic government access and the
corresponding right or obligation to contact government officials in the most
efficient and timely manner as technology permits. Even our own state's Dept
of Justice (both
former Atty Gen Brown and present Atty Gen Harris) believe the release of email
and direct phone numbers is required under the CPRA (see their Employee
Directories listed on our site). All Public Agencies should get used to
the fact that viruses, spam, denial-of-service and other attacks routinely
occur in all email systems and servers (including the government's), and
are a disruptive, troublesome and unavoidable fact of life for all
users of email in this millennium. But an agency can't just stick its
head in the sand and pray such attacks won't occur. Thus,
instead of the wholesale denial of access to certain public records, all
agencies should allow access to their employee's Email Addresses (and
Direct Phone Numbers) and independently move forward against the pervasive 21st
century email threats by installing and keeping up to date proactive virus
software (as do most private businesses).
Another
reason given by six counties from which employee email addresses and phone
numbers were denied in response to CPRA requests is cited verbatim below:
"The
County is not allowed to release records selectively based upon the purpose of
the requester, if the record is otherwise subject to disclosure. Gov. Code,
§6257.5. Therefore, were the County to release a list or partial list of County
email addresses and telephone numbers to you, the County would not be able to
deny requests from other requesters who might have a malicious intent.”
Thus,
at least six California counties are claiming it's also necessary to deny CPRA
requests because another requester might later obtain the same records and
possibly do something malicious with them. This is just one of the many types
of hypothetical concerns the CA courts have repeatedly struck down (see CBS,
Inc. v. Block
(1986) 42 Cal.3d 646, 652 (for the now accepted proposition that, "a
mere assertion of possible endangerment does not 'clearly outweigh' the public
interest in access to
[public] records.”
A
shining example of an agency that has made their Employee Names, Positions, Email
Addresses, and Direct Phone Numbers or Extensions readily
available is the Fremont Police Department's web page containing their entire
"Personnel Roster" (http://www.fremontpolice.org/personnel/personnel.html).
Another great example is the website maintained by the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission with a specific web page devoted to listing their
employee's Full Name, Direct Telephone Number, and Email Address
(and also including their biographies) on their "Staff Roster" (http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/staff_roster.shtml)
(directory converted to Word format and placed on our website). And the
City of Rolling Hills Estates provides a direct link to their complete "Staff
Directory" (http://www.ci.rolling-hills-estates.ca.us/index.aspx?page=240),
including the employee's Full Name, Email Address, Fax Number, Title,
Dept, Direct Telephone Number or Extension, and Email Icon (directory
also converted to Word format and placed on our website).
The Employee
Rosters or Directories found on the three above-referenced Public Agency
websites should be the norm and not the exception. All
California Public Agencies should place their employee contact information
online. But until many of the estimated 9,000 or so California Public Agencies
subject to the CPRA take any action to do so, we will continue trying to
accomplish this goal by obtaining electronic Employee and Telephone Directories
and Rosters from selected Public Agencies pursuant to the California Public
Records Act, and placing these directories on our website for use by ourselves
and other members of the public to assist in efficiently contacting our public
servants in an effective and timely manner.
In
addition, all California Public Agencies should distribute to their
employees a copy of The People's Business: A Guide to the California Public
Records Act (http://www.cacities.org/resource_files/newCybrary/2008/legalresource/26872.PRA_08%20(2)_web.pdf) offered
by League of California Cities which, in addition, also happens to
provide Public Records Act training seminars several times a year to California
government employees. Public Agencies could also download a copy of
the Public Records Act Training guide offered online by the California Dept of Justice (http://ag.ca.gov/publications/pra.pdf) (among three total online DOJ public records
guides) and review the Attorney General's suggestions on providing proper
responses to CPRA requests.
We
believe, however, that the legal analysis expressed online by the Santa
Monica Municipal Employees Association [SMMEA] pretty much sums up our
position. Below are a few selected paragraphs from their August 2010 News:
What
Does the Public Have the Right to Know about Its "Public
Servants?"
For the last several years public agencies and their
employees have been on the same side of a battle against "taxpayer"
groups that have been pressing for personal information about employees. In
2009, virtually every agency in the state received a Public Records Act
request, asking for names, job titles, union affiliations and salaries of the
people who work there. Many of these requests are ignored or rejected, on
grounds that they violate employees' privacy but, when push comes to shove, and
the cases have ended up in court the "right to privacy" has NOT won
out over "the public's right to know."
Under
the Public Records Act (the purpose of which is to "ensure public access
to vital information about the government's conduct of its business") any
member of the public has the right to know the name, position, work location,
work phone number, work email address and salary of any public employee. The Courts have found
that employees have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" about
their jobs or their relationship to those jobs. [Underline and bold
emphasis added.]
The CPRA does establish a few
exemptions: 1) personnel and medical files, which if disclosed would constitute
an "unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," and 2) facts which,
"better serve the public interest" by withholding the information
than by disclosing it. Number 2 is obviously a large exemption, and a
myriad of court cases are currently debating what kinds of information better
serves the public interest by non-disclosure, than disclosure! Overall,
however, the battle to maintain the privacy of who you are, what you do and what
you earn has been lost - although "personal" information (parents,
names, place of birth, school records, examination records, performance
evaluations, all considered part of your personnel file) is still
protected.
Non-Work "Contact" Information
In
hearing these various "demands" for public information the Courts
apply a "balancing test," weighing the value of the information the
public is seeking in "contributing to public understanding of government
activities" against the damage that might be done by the public's
intrusion of employees' lives. Thus, the Courts have put their feet down on
requests for employees' personal phone numbers or home addresses. In 2009, in
County of Santa Clara v Superior Court, [(California First Amendment Coalition) (2009) 170
Cal.App.4th 1301,1325]
the judge found that "even when the requester asserts that personal
contact is necessary to confirm government compliance with mandatory
duties," disclosure may be denied when there are "less intrusive
means of obtaining that information…" [Conversely, "where the
disclosure of names and addresses is necessary to allow the public to determine
whether public officials have properly exercised their duties by refraining
from the arbitrary exercise of official power, disclosure has been
upheld." (Ibid.)] [Bracketed
sections in this paragraph added from original opinion.]
What
about the "public's interest" in protecting employees against
intrusions on their time or against threats from members of the public?
The
Courts have said that some employees (basically undercover police officers) may
be allowed to maintain anonymity under some circumstances, because of personal
danger if their identities are released, but they have NOT come down on the
side of workplace privacy in the face of "threats" in general. What
they say is that safety or security issues may be examined on a case by case
basis, but that the "mere assertion of possible endangerment does not
clearly outweigh the public interest in access to records."
On
the question of "disruption" by bothersome members of the public, the
Courts have not been sympathetic at all. Public employees are considered
servants OF the public - and considered available for contact by the public, while
they are at work.
SMMEA
August 2010 News originally accessed 4-3-11. For the full issue goto: http://www.smmea.org/pdf/news_0810.pdf
On a
different but related note, several states have placed their employee and
agency directories online for their citizens to use.
For
instance, the Alabama Directory (last updated 10-15-11) has listings for all state
agencies and employees (http://www.alabama.gov/sliverheader/Welcome.do?url=http://info.alabama.gov/),
and returns the employee's Full Name, Agency, Direct Telephone Number,
and most Email Addresses (http://www.alabama.gov/sliverheader/Welcome.do?url=http://info.alabama.gov/).
The website also includes a handy app for Android and iPhone users so they may
also access the entire Alabama Directory directly from their cell phones (http://www.alabama.gov/sliverheader/Welcome.do?url=http://info.alabama.gov/).
The State
of Alaska Employee Directory (last updated 10-15-11) (http://alaska.gov/whitepages/default.aspx)
is fully searchable by first or last name, job title, agency, address, and
PCN/JCC-BU (job classification number?), and returns the employee's Full Name,
Title, Agency, Sub-Agency, Direct Telephone Number, Email Address,
Address, and PCN/JCC-BU number.
The Arkansas
State Directory Online Search is searchable by first or last name, or department or
service (http://www.arkansas.gov/directory/search.cgi),
and returns the employee's Full Name, Agency or Department, Email Address
and Direct Telephone Number. A separate check of the Arkansas
State Agencies directory
allows searches by state agency (http://portal.arkansas.gov/government/Pages/governmentAgencies.aspx),
then by staff directory, which then returns the employee's Full Name, Clickable
Email Address, Division, Title, Responsibilities, and General Telephone Number.
The State
of Colorado Employee Directory is searchable by either first or last name (http://www.colorado.gov/apps/oit/directory/start.jsf),
and returns the employee's Full Name, Agency, Direct Telephone Number,
and Email Address.
The State
of New Hampshire Telephone/Email Directory (http://admin.state.nh.us/directory/search_internet.asp)
is searchable by first or last name, department or agency, and returns the
employee's Full Name, Agency, Division or Bureau, Title, and Contact
Information that includes Direct Telephone Numbers and Email
Addresses.
The North
Carolina State Employee Directory (http://www.state.nc.us/directory.aspx)
is searchable by first or last name, and returns either the employee's Direct
Telephone Number or Email Address. And the state of North
Carolina was
helpful enough to include a recent survey as to the type of information their
employees would like to have available through their online Employee Directory
(http://www.state.nc.us/pdf/surveyresultssummary.pdf).
To the question, "Which of these would you use if available on the NC
state government's main website," 55.5% of the respondents said "State employee
address, email, and phone lists."
Finally,
the online California State Telephone Directory of agencies and employees (http://www.cold.ca.gov/) is searchable by
agency (http://www.cold.ca.gov/agency_lookup.asp),
or employee last name (or partial last name) (http://www.cold.ca.gov/state_employees.asp),
but contains only a fraction of the total number of current state
employees. The information returned for those few listed state
employees includes Full Name, Direct Telephone Number, and in most instances
provides the employee's Email Address). One huge and ongoing
problem, however, is that the directory is not adequately updated on a regular
basis, with a sample employee search performed by our group on 10-16-11
for longtime California employee Jerry Brown, which still shows his
listing as the Attorney General with the Dept of Justice in Oakland, CA at
510-622-4180, with an outdated email address of jerry.brown@doj.ca.gov.
Inasmuch as Jerry's been Governor since January 2011, this directory listing is
at least 10 and 1/2 months old. Perhaps each California state
agency's Directory Listing Coordinators (http://www.cold.ca.gov/dlc_info.asp)
should timely perform their duties, which provide that:
Each
state government agency, including departments, boards and commissions, is
required to designate at least one person within their organization as the
Directory Listing Coordinator (DLC). The DLC assists the Office of Technology
Services (OTech) by submitting monthly telephone directory listings data files
to Directory Services.
Listings
provided by the DLCs are used to update the State Telephone Directory, and for
publication in the California Online Telephone Directory. This information is
critical for the State Information Agents (formerly State Telephone Operators)
to respond to callers, and provides a resource for public and private agencies
and citizens to access the most updated state directory information.
Responsibilities
Specific
DLC responsibilities include:
Act
as the principle liaison to the OTech for directory services.
Meet
deadlines and follow information provided in DLC Bulletins.
Track
organizational and telephone number changes within their agency.
Submit
all changes electronically to OTech, as frequently as is requested in the DLC
Bulletins, via data files.
Resources
The
following resources have been provided to assist DLCs in their day-to-day
responsibilities:
To
designate a DLC for your agency, complete a DLC Designation Form (pdf), by
following the DLC Designation Form Instructions
(pdf).
The DLC Handbook is designed to
assist you with updating files for your agency's Yellow and White Pages of the
online directory. It will assist you through each step from logging on to
updating.
The
DLC Bulletins are emailed to DLCs who provide an email address. For DLCs not
providing email addresses, the bulletins will be sent by US Postal Service.
The lack of an up-to-date online California State Telephone Directory containing all and complete employee listings is just one of the initial reasons our group started seeking to obtain and post online specific State Employee and Agency Telephone Directories, and the later posting of various County and Local Employee and Agency Telephone Directories. Perhaps this ongoing project will encourage additional California State, County, and Local agencies to place relevant and timely full employee contact information on their various web pages.