Oakland City Attorney
SECTION 6250-6270
In enacting this chapter, the Legislature, mindful of the right of individuals to privacy, finds and declares that access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state.
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the California Public Records Act.
As used in this chapter:
(a) “Local agency” includes a county; city, whether general law or chartered; city and county; school district; municipal corporation; district; political subdivision; or any board, commission or agency thereof; other local public agency; or entities that are legislative bodies of a local agency pursuant to subdivisions
(c) and
(d) of Section 54952. (b) “Member of the public” means any person, except a member, agent, officer, or employee of a federal, state, or local agency acting within the scope of his or her membership, agency, office, or employment. (c) “Person” includes any natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or association. (d) “Public agency” means any state or local agency.
(e) “Public records” includes any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics. “Public records” in the custody of, or maintained by, the Governor’s office means any writing prepared on or after January 6, 1975.
(f) “State agency” means every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission or other state body or agency, except those agencies provided for in Article IV (except Section 20 thereof) or Article VI of the California Constitution.
(g) “Writing” means any handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored.
Notwithstanding the definition of “member of the public” in Section 6252, an elected member or officer of any state or local agency is entitled to access to public records of that agency on the
City Attorney Barbara J. Parker releases a periodic newsletter in which she provides updates about the work of the Office of the City Attorney as well as reflections on current local, statewide, and national legal topics of importance to Oakland residents.
