Pilot puts officials to test

As for Costa Mesa, City Clerk Julie Folcik told me she had checked her records and found no travel expenses at all for the council this year.

I also asked the cities to provide monthly breakdowns for gasoline expenses since September, since gas prices have hit record levels more than once since the new year. Folcik and Mike Pisani, Newport Beach’s deputy director of general services, both sent me spreadsheets. Neither chart showed much of an increase in expenses, but Folcik said the numbers may not reflect costs at the pump, since the city often orders gas long before using it and buys more gas in some months than others.

In short, the gas charts didn’t quite make a riveting story — and Sunshine Week or not, that’s sometimes the case with public records.

— Michael Miller  

CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH

I began my quest for public records with an informal request over the phone for some information from Newport Beach City Atty. Robin Clauson.

I wanted to get a tally of how much the city has spent on outside legal services relating to issues surrounding drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes in Newport Beach. The city passed a new ordinance in January to regulate the homes, and I wanted to find out how much money the city has spent dealing with the issue.

Sometimes simply asking for information is the fastest way to get it, so I asked Clauson to give me a tally of how much the city has spent on the services of its special legal counsel on the group homes issue.

During the course of our phone conversation, Clauson said she didn’t have the information immediately on hand, and she would get back to me at a later date.

I waited a week or two and never heard back from Clauson.

Although my request was only a verbal one, a city official should have responded in a timely manner, Francke said.

“Any request is entitled to a response within 10 days — at least a determination to whether the records are going to made available,” Francke said. “That really should not happen again.”

For my second attempt, I sent a written request for the information in an e-mail to both Clauson and Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

When it comes to public records, persistence is key.

This time, I got an e-mail from Kiff almost immediately stating I would be able to get the information I needed within a week. Clauson followed up within five business days of my request with an e-mail containing information I had asked for.

I plan to write an upcoming story for the Pilot based on the public records I have obtained.

— Brianna Bailey