California Public Records Act: state of emergency.

The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make their records available for public inspection, except as specified. Existing law requires each agency, within 10 days of a request for a copy of records, to determine whether the request seeks copies of disclosable public records in possession of the agency and to promptly notify the person of the determination and the reasons therefor. Existing law authorizes that time limit to be extended by no more than 14 days under unusual circumstances, and defines "unusual circumstances" to include certain circumstances. This bill would revise the unusual circumstances under which the time limit may be extended to include the need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine records during a state of emergency, as defined, proclaimed by the Governor in the jurisdiction where the agency is located when the state of emergency currently affects, due to the state of emergency, the agency's ability to timely respond to requests due to staffing shortages or closure of facilities where the requested records are located, except as specified. The California Constitution requires local agencies, for the purpose of ensuring public access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies, to comply with a statutory enactment that amends or enacts laws relating to public records or open meetings and contains findings demonstrating that the enactment furthers the constitutional requirements relating to this purpose. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.