Lawsuit challenges San Jose’s public records practices

San Jose’s handling of public records requests has landed the city in legal hot water numerous times over the past two decades. Now a local law firm is waging yet another court fight in an attempt to settle the matter once and for all.

The firm, McManis Faulkner, filed a lawsuit April 13 in Santa Clara County Superior Court on behalf of San Jose resident Sarah Scofield. The complaint alleges San Jose has a yearslong history of flouting the California Public Records Act, which requires government agencies to turn over public records — such as official correspondence, police reports and officer body-worn camera footage — upon request. The complaint asks for a permanent injunction that could see the court assign a monitor tasked with ensuring city officials follow state mandates.

Jim McManis, a partner at the San Jose-based firm, argues denying public access to such documents impedes effective government oversight. Now, he said this case is intended to send a simple message to the city — “knock it off.”

“The people are entitled to these things,” McManis told San José Spotlight. “They’re entitled to them in a timely way, a complete production, and all these games you’ve been playing for years — that’s not going to be accepted.”

McManis is also representing San José Spotlight in a separate lawsuit, filed last October, over the city’s refusal to hand over documents related to the “Tammany Hall” group chat scandal. The incident centered on an inflammatory text thread that allegedly included Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas and former Councilmember Omar Torres, who was convicted last year of child sex crimes. City officials claim the texts, discovered on Torres’ phone, are exempt from disclosure because they’re part of a criminal investigation.

McManis Faulkner’s complaint outlines a litany of public records request cases that its authors say San Jose has mishandled. Among the alleged violations, they claim the city has repeatedly denied legitimate document requests, made false claims about records searches, misclassified documents and improperly denied the existence of certain documents.

In other cases, the city has slow-walked requests for months or years, repeatedly asserting more time is needed to prepare documents for disclosure, the complaint alleges.

Responding to the lawsuit, City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said she disputes the complaint’s characterizations of the cases it cites.

“The city of San Jose is committed to open governance, and many city employees are involved daily in responding to numerous requests for public records,” Alcala Wood told San José Spotlight.

A San Jose Police Department spokesperson declined to comment, citing department policy against discussing pending litigation.

McManis declined on Scofield’s behalf to comment.

McManis Faulkner is asking the court to take steps to push for greater transparency, including issuing a permanent injunction requiring San Jose to train all public officials about the legal requirements for handling city records. To ensure compliance, the firm is also demanding the city provide regular updates on its public records practices under the oversight of a court-appointed monitor.

The recently filed lawsuit is just the latest legal challenge accusing San Jose and its leaders of violating transparency laws by withholding or hiding public records.

San José Spotlight and the First Amendment Coalition won a public records lawsuit against San Jose in 2023 when a judge ruled the city and former Mayor Sam Liccardo violated state transparency laws by failing to prove they adequately searched his private texts and emails for official correspondence.

McManis also led another successful lawsuit challenging San Jose over its refusal to turn over emails and texts about a development proposal from former Mayor Tom McEnery. The yearslong legal battle culminated in a landmark 2017 California Supreme Court ruling that found communications on personal accounts or devices are considered public records so long as they deal with public business.

Responding to criticism over such cases, San Jose officials have said the city faces a significant administrative burden as it seeks to fulfill the thousands of records requests lodged each year.

“While the effort expended to do that is significant, especially in the case of video and audio records that must be redacted for public disclosure, city employees are attentive to every request that is received,” Alcala Wood said.

Hannah Lauchner, an associate attorney with McManis Faulkner, said rather than a one-off lawsuit addressing a single violation, the new case aims to bring about a more permanent remedy to address the longstanding transparency complaints against San Jose.

“The city’s practices need to be publicly addressed and put to a stop, so that we don’t have to keep coming back for these petitions to compel the city to produce documents they obviously have in their possession,” Lauchner told San José Spotlight.

Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.