CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Governor Appeals on Access to Records

Gov. George Deukmejian has asked the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento to reconsider its January ruling that would give journalists and others access to the governor’s daily appointment calendars. The request for a rehearing argues that the court erred last month when it granted a Los Angeles Times reporter access to documents listing the people that Deukmejian has met with on official business since he became governor in 1983. The California Public Records Act generally requires officials to make documents available unless there is a strong public interest in not disclosing them. But Deukmejian contended that the calendars are covered by an exemption in the law that allows the governor to withhold his “correspondence”--which he defined as “interchange of written communications.” The Appellate Court disagreed, saying that the definition used by Deukmejian would allow him to withhold “virtually every written item in the governor’s office.”