CALIFORNIANS AWARE - THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC FORUM RIGHTS (AKA CalAware)

CalAware was established in 2004 to help taxpayers, public officials and journalists keep Californians aware of what they need to know to hold government and other powerful institutions accountable for their actions. Its mission is to support and defend open government, an inquiring press and a citizenry free to exchange facts and opinions on public issues. In short, Californians Aware is a center for information, guidance and initiatives in public forum law.

Public forum law deals with people's rights to find out what citizens need to know to be truly self-governing, and to share what they know and believe without fear or loss. These rights are complementary. Open meetings and public records laws keep information about civic issues freely available. Legal protections for journalists, activists, whistleblowers and others striving to keep the community armed with the facts and their implications complete the circle of law that it takes to keep Californians aware.

The trends that threaten public forums are:
• Excessive official secrecy, leaving a public starved of the facts that are staples of speech.
• Intimidation or retaliation, placing too high a price on inquiry, reporting or comment.
• Eroding opportunity, caused by dwindling space or time for expected and protected speech.

We propose to offer resources to fight them, and to do so without political partisanship or ideology. Our only agenda is to allow others' agendas, however tentative or unpopular at the moment, to be offered and debated for whatever support they may attract.
The challenge has three levels:
• Encouraging the improvement of public forum law in the Legislature and the courts.
• Promoting better practices and better observance of the law by public agencies.
• Assuring that citizens know their rights and protections and how to use them confidently.

Our experience to date combines:
• 36 years of monitoring the California Legislature and working on policy there to improve public forum law and fighting to preserve it from erosion;
• 24 years of daily responding to phoned and other queries from public interest activists, attorneys, public officials and journalists concerning open government and free expression laws.
• 10 years suing state and local agencies—almost always successfully—for violating the open meetings and public records laws;
• 10 years blogging about and publishing guidebooks to using laws on open government meetings and records as well as protection for journalists; and
• 8 years conducting audits of state and local agencies to determine their compliance with the state's public records laws.

CalAware works to preserve and extend your liberties and protections before speech or civic action puts them in play, by supporting and enforcing strong limitations on the power of government.

CalAware provides information and experienced guidance to the public on how to deal with government forces striving to hide information, squelch public criticism or exclude the public from obtaining full and open access to the operation of government.

CalAware helps members of the public find an experienced First Amendment, open meetings and public records act lawyer when legal action is required to defend rights or compel access.

For a full list of accomplishments please go to: https://www.calaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Principal-Activities-and-Achievements-of-Californians-Aware.pdf

As for what's next, we're focusing on serving sectors with distinctive needs:

Nonprofit Local News Enterprises

Of the 180 member entities of the Institute for Nonprofit News, 23 or 14 percent are in California, and while a handful cover major metropolitan areas, most do not. They cannot afford a staff attorney or even occasional counseling by a media law specialist.
CalAware will provide them with low-cost e-book versions of its Guide to Journalism Law in California, which can also provide the framework for YouTube tutorials, periodic webinars and an attorney helpline.

Residents of Condominium Communities

In 2008 the condominium industry estimated that about a third of California’s population lived in the state’s 45,000 common interest developments—private residential communities governed by homeowner associations. The HOAs are not subject to the state’s open meeting or public records laws, but instead have their own transparency requirements.
CalAware will develop a guide to those access and transparency guarantees.

Newly Organized Activist and Advocacy Groups

Some social, political, educational or environmental issues are perennial, with adherents having an experienced and confident grasp of their rights to publicly demonstrate their support for or opposition to a cause for common concern. Others, however, may form around a particular and relatively sudden controversy surrounding the actions or proposals of a local, state or federal agency, or of a corporate entity.
CalAware will work to develop a handbook providing a quick study of the rights and risks of vocal democracy.

High School Student Speech and Journalism Rights

California’s Education Code provides several statutes governing high school student speech and journalism that are more protective of expression than the First Amendment. But neither the state nor most school districts provide training in these laws.
CalAware will publish, in affordable e-book format, its First Amendment 101: A Guide to Speech, Press and Related Rights of California High School Students.