Add California to the list of states that vehemently disagree with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
"More than a decade ago, Mayor Sam Liccardo was among several officials sued over their use of private emails to conduct public business. Now, the attorney who successfully argued the case against the city worries Liccardo is at it again.
San Francisco attorney Karl Olson, representing San José Spotlight, sent a letter last Friday to press Liccardo to not destroy any emails, following this news organization's exclusive report last month on how the mayor attempted to bypass public records law by directing a resident to email his private Gmail account and then deleting their correspondence from his government email.
"We don't normally, and we don't lightly, urge the mayors of large cities not to break the law," the letter reads, "but given Mayor Liccardo's past promiscuous use of his private electronic devices to conduct public business—which has already led to a California Supreme Court ruling against him and the city—and apparent destruction of at least one record already, we are greatly concerned that he may be in the process of, or about to, destroy or secrete the records we have requested."
In 2009, a San Jose activist sued the city and its elected officials, including then-Councilmember Liccardo for withholding records on private devices related to a redevelopment plan in downtown. San Jose argued that the state's open records law did not apply to private devices or accounts. The case escalated to the California Supreme Court in 2017, where the court unanimously ruled against the city, effectively closing a longstanding loophole in state law. Olson successfully argued for the disclosure of private emails in the case.
*"If communications sent through personal accounts were categorically excluded from (California Public Records Act), government officials could hide their most sensitive, and potentially damning, discussions in such accounts,"* the ruling reads.
