Getting your request to them quickly

Should you mail it? Fax it? Email it? I find that sending it by fax and mail is most effective. I did have the Recorder's Office ignore my fax and they date stamped the mailed version. If you can find out the department head's email address, consider making your request a .pdf document and email it to them. I would caution you against sending a word file or .doc since it can be easily changed. I try to keep all my requests to .pdf format so that I can easily view them in Adobe Bridge and so that I can have small file sizes. Try to find out the email address for the contact person. This is a great instant method to get the request to them. Be creative.

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Monday's "HOW TO"

I never realized how much work was involved in blogging; Feeds, pings, blog rolls, mutual linking, page impressions, you get the point. That being said I thought having a semi-structured format would be helpful. On Monday's I am going to attempt to have a "HOW TO:" post that will help you, the reader, obtain public records, or at least point you in the direction of resources for obtaining the records you seek. So this week's post will be a resource ... It can be tough finding out what who is in charge of an agency, do they have a public records officer, what are their policies, etc. Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State has a terrific resource called the California Roster. Here is the 2007 Roster.

The California Roster, also known as the Roster of Public Officials, is a listing of California’s public officeholders, including our United States government officials, the Constitutional officers, members of the State Senate and Assembly, the Judicial branch, county officials, and Incorporated city and town officials.
It also includes a history of California’s office holders, descriptions of the state emblems, a listing of all state agencies, departments, boards and commissions, a listing of the unincorporated areas, and information on the state officials for each state in the nation.
The California Roster has been made available exclusively online by the Secretary of State since 2005.

The Secretary's website also has their Public Record Act guidelines posted on their website. Here is the current guideline.
If you have any suggestions or requests for future posts, please leave your comment here.

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