FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bob Wilson
Phone: 650-678-7359
Email: bobw2654@gmail.com
The SF Bay Stewardship alliance continues to push for reform of BCDC
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (September 8, 2020) – In July 2018, the Alliance sent a Public Records request to BCDC regarding its enforcement practices and policies including the use of funds collected as claimed penalties.
The initial response from BCDC included no emails and the agency improperly stated there were no further records to make available.
The Alliance filed suit in August 2018 alleging BCDC was improperly withholding large volumes of records.
In May 2019, the Alliance secured a complete legal victory. After initially claiming it had no further records, BCDC released over 140,000 documents to the Alliance.
The Alliance asked the Court in February 2020 to resolve the fees and costs as a result of this matter on behalf of the Alliance. The Court awarded fees requested as the BCDC had not properly complied with the Alliance request in a timely manner.
Two years after the initial request for documents, in August 2020 BCDC finally paid the costs incurred by the Alliance that were awarded by the court totaling over $340,000.
The Alliance continues to pursue further records which should have already been sent.
Bob Wilson Co-Founder of the Alliance stated: “A Public Records Request which should have been completed quickly by BCDC took 18 months to obtain the records and 2 years to receive the court awarded costs. This was a complete waste of the taxpayers’ time and money by BCDC. The Alliance will continue to press for the remaining records. The documents already received highlight actions which are not in the public interest and the Alliance will bring these forward to the BCDC commissioners.”