Jardine: Lawyer needs to read law

From the voice mails and e-mails:

PUBLIC RECORD -- On June 26, Groveland resident Kay Crow filed a public records request asking how much money the Groveland Community Services District, a public agency, had paid in legal fees for three specific projects. Officials forwarded the request to the district's attorney, David McMurchie of Sacramento. On July 21 -- well beyond the 10 business days give to respond under the California Public Records Act -- he basically denied her request.

"It is the district's position that these descriptions of services, answers to inquiries and recommendations constitute confidential communications between this firm and the district as its client which are protected by attorney-client privilege as specified in Evidence Code Section 954," McMurchie wrote.

So much for the spirit of open government. By this standard, any government agency could conceivably hire an outside attorney who then uses attorney-client privilege to skirt disclosing information otherwise accessible to the public.

I called Peter Scheer of the California First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit group that watches governments and open records, for his learned opinion. He said that while some specifics can be redacted, the agency is absolutely obligated to provide the information requested.

"The amounts of billings and hourly rates are not at all privileged or confidential," Scheer said. "(The attorney) has a choice. He can do all that work to redact and charge the district, or he could exercise his discretion and answer the damned questions. He can't just deny the requests in their entirety."

SCHOOL DAZE -- Andrew Scull is the University of California at San Diego professor who recently penned the letter, signed by 22 other faculty members, to UC President Mark Yudof imploring him to close the campuses in Merced, Santa Cruz and Riverside so that UC San Diego wouldn't have to sacrifice through budget cuts. According to the school's Web site, Scull is taking a year's sabbatical in 2009-10, with pay, presumably to do research. Here's a thought: Maybe he could do a research paper on how arrogant some professors look when they advocate closing other colleges entirely so they can go on paid sabbaticals.

CHANGING FORCE -- During the seven years Modesto police Sgt. Steve May survived after his 2002 crash, the department had so many retirements, resignations and other departures that many never got to know him.

"We have officers who don't even know who Steve was," interim Chief Mike Harden said.

In fact, 75 of MPD's 238 sworn officers -- 32 percent -- came on board after July 29, 2002, the day May was critically injured.

He died at age 53 on July 23.

SIGNS ARE EVERYWHERE -- Jeff Dobbek Sr., the Gilroy man who nearly drowned in Emerald Pool at Yosemite National Park two weeks ago, truly might not realize how fortunate he was that his now 12-year-old son (happy birthday today, Jeff Jr.) kept him afloat until others got him out of the water. Upon further inspection, doctors at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto discovered Dobbek Sr. had a heart blockage that, combined with the 50-degree water temperature, likely cause him to faint as he reached the pool's edge.

Turlock High School science instructor Ryan Hollister suggests the entire episode could have been avoided had the Dobbeks and others heeded the numerous "Danger: Swimming or wading is prohibited in Emerald Pool and on the Silver Apron" signs posted all around Emerald Pool, which is just above Vernal Falls. There have been four drownings in Emerald Pool since 1980, and 13 people have died by going over 307-foot falls.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.