Public record act requests are a necessary and valuable means for citizens to obtain information from their government that isn’t ordinarily available.

They are also a valuable tool for reporters, bloggers and opposition researchers to go on fishing expeditions for information they hope will be damaging to whomever it is they hope to damage.

Anaheim City Hall receives large number of PRAs from a very small number of individuals. Out of curiosity, I recently submitted a PRA for PRAs submitted since June 1, 2013 by a select group of frequent submitters such as Jason Young, Cynthia Ward, Adam Elmahrek/Voice of OC and OCCORD. According to the reply from the very responsive staff of the Anaheim City Clerk’s office, there were:

  • 6 requests from OCCORD
  • 6 from Cynthia Ward
  • 14 from Adam Elmahrek
  • 10 from Jason Young

I haven’t yet picked up the electronically submitted requests, but the City Clerk’s office e-mailed me a list of phoned-in and in-person requests:

  • July 11: Adam Elmahrek – Responsive Records to C.Ward Request re ARC/Streetcar (Dec. 2012)
  • July 29: Cynthia Ward – 2008 & 2012 Jennifer Rivera Nomination Papers
  • August 15: Jason Young – Previous Records Produced (Spring 2013) re Calendars – OC Register
  • August 19: Adam Elmahrek – Same Records as Provided to Jason Young re Calendars – OC Register
  • August 26: Adam Elmahrek – Records as sent to J.Young in May 2013 re. Kring/O’Connell/Patel/Pringle Meeting
  • August 30: Cynthia Ward – Report by Convention, Sports & Leisure re Economic Impact of Angels Baseball.

TMYK!