Almaden Resident
News
Inquiring minds want to know about 35 blacked out items
By Monica Heger
Despite recent talk of transparency, the sun is still not shining on city hall. Following the council's approval of the $4 million Grand Prix subsidy, the San Jose Mercury News submitted a public record request for documents related to the Grand Prix. The city attorney's office released the documents, but 35 of them contained blacked-out information, what the city attorney's office cited as "deliberative process privilege" for not disclosing all of the information.
On April 11, the Mercury News wrote a letter to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and the city council, requesting that all the contents of the 35 documents be fully disclosed. The undisclosed documents include an email from deputy city manager Ed Shikada to city manager Del Borgsdorf with the subject line "Grand Prix Update" and some information in an email series between Grand Prix organizers and city staff.
The Mercury News argued in its letter that the public should have access to documents explaining how and why public money was spent.
Councilman Dave Cortese agreed, and submitted a memorandum to the rules committee requesting discussion and/or action on the undisclosed documents be placed on the April 18 city council agenda.
The rules committee determined the memo should go to City Attorney Rick Doyle for evaluation and brought back to the committee in two weeks. Then the committee will determine if the item should be placed on the city council agenda.
