Open Government

In April a story exploded that CSU-Stanislaus had failed to properly turn over public documents requesting how much money they had spent for the controversial former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, to speak at their commencement address.  Accusations flew that they had improperly denied a public records request, claiming first that they did not have the documents, and then when documents surfaced, that they were a private entity and not subject to the records act.

To add fuel to the fire, students came forward after discovering a document-shredding party.  Two days after Senator Leeland Yee and Californians Aware were denied their request for public information, several students found documents in the dumpster, including pages 4-12 of Sarah Palin’s contract.  According to the students, these documents were intact and were mixed in with other documents that apparently had been shredded on a furlough Friday by University Officials.

On Friday Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he has signed a bill that will protect UC faculty and workers who report illegal or improper actions from retaliation in the workplace.

SB 650 authored by Senator Leland Yee provides UC employees with the same legal protections as other state employees, including those at California State University and California’s community colleges.  The new law will ensure that UC employees can exercise their right to seek damages in court on a retaliation complaint that was not responded to fairly by the university.

CSU Stanislaus President Hamid Shirvani has hurled some accusations of his own Wednesday in the case involving the contract of Sarah Palin for a speaking visit to the university.  His statement came one day after Senator Leland Yee held a press conference accusing the university of withholding public records and destroying documents relating to the former Vice Presidential candidate’s visit to the campus. 

Senator Yee asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate and late Tuesday, the AG’s office acknowledged they will look into allegations along with an array of fiscal documents involving the university’s foundation.

A controversy has arisen involving Sarah Palin’s speech at CSU-Stanislaus and university efforts to avoid disclosure of documents showing how much money they spent to bring the controversial former Vice Presidential Candidate to their campus. 

In an effort to get disclosure, Senator Leland Yee asked that the university disclose all documents related to the Sarah Palin event.  CSU-Stanislaus responded that they had no documents related to that request.

On July 27, 2009 The Vanguard received a notice from the legal department at Google.  The notice read:

“Google has received a civil subpoena for information related to your blog and anonymous comments posted on your blog. The case is entitled Calvin Chang v. Regents of University of California, Superior Court, County of Sacramento, State of California.”

The case involves a story posted on the Vanguard’s old Blogger site run through Google.  The article, “Former UC Davis Officer Claims Violation of Settlement Agreement” highlights the lawsuit that UC Davis Police Officer Calvin Chang brought against his former department and University in part for harassment and in part for a violation of a previous settlement agreement.  There were seven postings that were either anonymous or pseudonymous that according to Officer Chang might have originated from a former supervisor and therefore go to the heart of the case.

The Woodland Record is an alternative on-line newspaper in Woodland and in many ways is the Vanguard’s counterpart up in Woodland, looking into many of the same sorts of issues involving local government.  They have been looking into the Yolo County’s property bordered by Court, Third, North, and Fourth Streets in Woodland.