Court Forces Deukmejian to Make Schedule Public

Upholding the broad right of journalists’ access to public records, the state Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled that Gov. George Deukmejian must turn over his daily appointment calendar to a Times reporter.

In a lengthy opinion, Justice Frances Newell Carr rejected Deukmejian’s argument that records showing details of the governor’s schedule are exempt from the California Public Records Act.

Carr said the exemption claimed by the governor was so broad that it would include “virtually every written item in the governor’s office”--including the annual budget that he is required to send to the Legislature each year.

Under the unanimous ruling of the three-member panel, Deukmejian would have to turn over his daily calendar to a Superior Court judge. Reviewing the documents in private, the judge could block the release of any information that posed a security threat to the governor. But everything else would have to be disclosed.

However, Deukmejian press secretary Robert Gore said the governor intends to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court.

Gore added that Deukmejian would withhold any further comment “until he had a chance to read the opinion and analyze it.”

Times Deputy Managing Editor Noel Greenwood applauded the appellate court decision. “We are pleased with the ruling,” Greenwood said. “We have always believed that these materials are public record.”

In 1988, the Times Mirror Co., which publishes The Times, filed suit against Deukmejian after the governor refused to release his daily calendars dating back to his inauguration in 1983.

The calendars provide an account of Deukmejian’s activities as governor--listing the people he met with on official business and the location of each meeting.

But Deukmejian contended that he did not have to disclose the documents. He argued that he was not required to release his calendars because of an exemption in the Public Records Act for the governor’s correspondence.

In what the appeals court described as “a battle of dictionaries,” The Times and the governor disagreed on what the act meant by “correspondence.”

Debating Definitions

The Times relied on Webster’s dictionary, which defines correspondence as “communication by letters; also: the letters exchanged.” The governor used a Black’s Law Dictionary definition: the “interchange of written communications.”

The court sided with Webster’s and rejected the law dictionary definition, saying that “it simply covers too much.”

Deukmejian also argued that release of his calendars would compromise his personal security.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge agreed with Deukmejian. The judge said he had a special concern about the governor’s security, noting that his ruling on Nov. 22, 1988, came on the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

But while noting that the security question was a serious one, the appeals court ruled that “a mere assertion of possible endangerment” was not enough to outweigh the public interest in access to the records.