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Board hears public concern over PRA fees; staff reports legal costs tied to public-records work
Summary
Community members urged posting PRA requests/responses to reduce duplicate requests; administration said about half of recent legal costs were for PRA work and that ACOE has agreed to reimburse some Lozano Smith fees, while trustees discussed process changes and legal redaction obligations.
Public commenters and trustees spent significant time discussing the costs and process of fulfilling Public Records Act (PRA) requests. A community member recommended publishing PRA requests and responses in a shared folder to reduce duplicative requests and legal work.
"PRAs themselves are public records. PRA requests themselves are public records," the commenter said and proposed making request-response pairs available on a public Google Drive so the community could check whether a request had already been made. Administration responded that the district's deep-dive found roughly half of recent legal costs were attributable to PRA work and outside counsel between 09/18/2023 and 06/20/2024. "Bottom line, it is about 50% of our legal costs have gone to PRAs during that time frame," the presenter said.
Administrators noted that some PRA responses require legal redaction and careful review, which drives outside counsel use; Lozano Smith fees referenced in the materials are expected to be reimbursed by the Alameda County Office of Education in some instances. Trustees asked whether published request/response sets would reduce duplication and what the privacy and liability implications would be; staff said they would consult counsel before publishing and return with options.
The discussion included requests for an operational protocol to identify duplicate or overlapping requests, and trustees urged prudence in balancing transparency with legal redaction obligations. No immediate policy change was adopted; staff will investigate the public-drive approach and report back.
