Editorial: L.A. city attorney’s attempt to weaken public records law is harmful and wrong

By the Times Editorial Board, July 5, 2003

Hydee Feldstein Soto has launched a misguided effort to weaken the state’s bedrock government transparency law.

Fresh off an embarrassing attempt to claw back Los Angeles police officer photos the city released in response to a public records request, City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto has launched another misguided effort — this time to weaken the state’s bedrock government transparency law.

Lawyers who have looked at the two-page draft said the language is so broad it would let agencies refuse to provide even the names of government employees and officials.

That would “completely gut the Public Records Act,” Melanie Ochoa, an attorney who is the director of police practices for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told Times reporter Laurel Rosenhall.