Cal State Stanislaus ordered to release documents on Palin’s appearance

California State University officials violated the state’s open records laws when they refused to release the contract and other documents related to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s recent fundraising appearance at a Cal State campus, a judge has ruled.

Cal State Stanislaus and a foundation affiliated with the campus were sued by a government watchdog group in April after they refused to disclose details of Palin’s contract, including her speaking fee. Officials argued that the nonprofit foundation that hosted the former Republican vice presidential candidate was not subject to the state’s Public Records Act.

They also argued that the contract with the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represented Palin, was confidential.

Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Roger M. Beauchesne ordered Cal State Stanislaus officials to release the contract as well as other documents related to the use of university facilities, staff and services surrounding the June 25 fundraising gala.

Beauchesne agreed that the foundation was not subject to the open records law. But he found that university employees, “specifically California State University Chancellor Charles Reed,” used the contract as part of their official duties.

After the suit was filed, the university released thousands of documents, mostly e-mails, relating to Palin’s appearance but not her contract. In one e-mail exchange with an executive from the speakers bureau, Reed discussed the advisability of disclosing Palin’s speaking fee.

“The reasonable inference from the evidence produced is that the university, in its official capacity, has ‘used’ the contract between the Washington Speakers Bureau [and the university foundation] in the conduct of the public’s business; therefore, said contract is also a public record and should have been produced to petitioner,” Beauchesne wrote in the opinion filed Monday.

An attorney for Californians Aware, the group that filed the lawsuit, said the decision was a victory for California citizens. “We hope this will change the way Cal State handles Public Records Act requests and instead of automatically assuming documents are private, coming down on the side that these documents belong to the public,” Kelly Aviles said.

University officials said they would not appeal the decision.

“It appears that the judge, without direct evidence, made an assumption based on one e-mail exchange that the chancellor had in fact actually seen a copy of the contract, when that is not the case,” said Dawn Theodora, university counsel for the Cal State system. “However, since the court has mandated that the university produce the contract, we will be requesting that the California State University Stanislaus Foundation disclose the contract since the university has never had a copy.”

Late Thursday, the foundation released a copy of the contract to Cal State Stanislaus officials, who then provided the document to Californians Aware and the news media. Dated March 18, the contract confirms that the foundation paid Palin $75,000 for her appearance. It is signed by Susana Gajic-Bruyea, vice president for university advancement at Cal State Stanislaus and executive officer of the foundation board.

But the controversy had already sparked inquiries from California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who had also requested the documents. The saga took a twist when several students, digging through a campus trash bin, discovered parts of Palin’s contract that called for deluxe hotel accommodations, prescreened questions and “bendable straws.”

Yee is sponsoring legislation, now on the governor’s desk, that would subject foundations such as the one at Stanislaus to the public records law.

Responding to the court decision, Yee said in a statement: “It is time for CSU to embrace common-sense transparency policies instead of spending taxpayer dollars fighting to keep the public in the dark.”

carla.rivera@latimes.com