Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc. v. City of Oakland

July 22, 2004 - The Times sues Oakland in Alameda County Superior Court, demanding the names and salaries of the city's employees. The state's newspapers quickly rally to the case on the side of disclosure. Public employee unions join the case on the side of the city.
Verified Petition for Writ of Mandate (pdf)
Memo. of Points and Authorities in Support of Writ of Mandate (pdf)

Nov. 8, 2004 - Alameda County Superior Judge Steven A. Brick orders the disclosure of the salaries, writing the information is needed "so that citizens can effectively monitor the activities of the government." The data shows that 74 of the cities' 100 highest paid employees are police and firefighters and that some increased their yearly gross by more than $100,000 through overtime.
Order Granting Petition for Writ of Mandate (pdf)

April 18, 2005 - The California First District Court of Appeal upholds Brick's decision in a 3-0 ruling. "Payment of public employees' salaries is a public expense, and the amounts and recipients of that expense are public records," the justices wrote. The decision sharply contradicts the October 2003 decision by a different panel of appellate justices in the Priceless case.
Court of Appeal Ruling (pdf)
Court of Appeal Ruling (doc)

May 27, 2005 - The unions appeal to the Supreme Court, which on July 27 grants review of the case.Numerous groups petition for leave to file as Amici Curiae. The ACLU of Northern California files its petition in support of releasing the records.
ACLU's Petition (pdf)

Aug. 27, 2007 -The Supreme Court rules 7-0 in favor of disclosure of non-police officer salaries. It also carves a small exemption for officer's working in undercover or dangerous positions where release of names may endanger them, but otherwise rules that police salaries can be disclosed. One justice dissents on the issue of releasing police data.
Supreme Court Ruling (pdf)
Supreme Court Ruling (doc)

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100K Club is uncloaked

The California State Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings today. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The salaries and hiring and termination dates of government workers, including police officers, are public information and cannot be kept secret, a divided state Supreme Court ruled today in two related cases.
The California Public Records Act requires the state's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to disclose the names, departments, hiring and termination dates of California law-enforcement officers, the court ruled in one case that began in Sacramento County.
In the other case, involving the city of Oakland, the court said the public-records act also requires the disclosure of names and salaries of public employees making at least $100,000 a year.
Both cases involved news media requests for the disclosure of government personnel information.
"I'm very pleased," said Karl Olson, an attorney representing the Contra Costa Times in the Oakland case. "I think it's a major victory for the public's right to know. The court looked at whether the public interest in seeing how government's money is spent outweighs the assertions of privacy that have been made by the public employee unions, and they correctly concluded the public's interest is paramount."
In the Sacramento County case, a state appeals court had ruled that the information sought by the Los Angeles Times couldn't be disclosed because it was available only from personnel records. The appeals court ruled those records were not public documents.

Here are the rulings:Com. on Peace Officer etc. v. Super. Ct. and Internat. Prof. & Tech. Engineers v. Super. Ct.
California State Supreme Court website.

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