2Bwacco
04-14-2011, 04:13 PM
Sonoma West Times:
Lawsuit over 2009 accident has City on edge about privacy
<center></center> City staff and council e-mails sought in litigation
by Frank Robertson
Sonoma West Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 2:23 PM PDT
SEBASTOPOL — The attorney representing a young woman hit by a car in Sebastopol two years ago is suing the city over access to records regarding the potential hazards of walking downtown.
San Francisco attorney David Rouda is accusing city officials of “throwing up roadblocks” in violation of the state Public Records Act in the matter of Julia Bertoli, a Petaluma teenager who was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being struck by car while walking across Healdsburg Avenue on July 3, 2009.
Rouda wants to see city records going back more than 10 years including any e-mails from city officials discussing downtown city traffic hazards.
City officials have been providing Rouda with written public records regarding city traffic issues, but Rouda’s public records request includes city staff and City Councilmembers’ e-mails and other electronically stored information.
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From the city’s perspective the request is “way over-broad,” said Sebastopol Mayor Guy Wilson.
Asking to look inside the computers of everybody on the city staff “is very broad based,” said Wilson, and asking to see City Councilmembers personal e-mail could “invade privacy and go far beyond relevant issues in this case.”
As an attorney, asking for his e-mail might also violate attorney-client privilege if it meant granting access to confidential e-mails to and from his law clients, said Wilson.
“As a matter of precedent, for e-mail history to be rummaged through could be really problematic,” said Wilson.
“It’s a needle-in-a-haystack theory,” said Wilson, who is not representing the city in the Bertoli case. The city is represented by the Santa Rosa law firm of Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Gratton & Mitchell.
Sebastopol City Manager Jack Griffin and city Engineering Director Sue Kelly, both among the more than 30 defendants in the case, said they couldn’t comment. Sebastopol City Attorney Larry McLaughlin was not available.
Rouda said access to government e-mails and other electronically stored information is specifically covered in the Public Records Act.
Rouda wants access to the hard drives at the City Engineer’s office, the Planning Department and the Department of Public Works as well as the city’s engineering consultants in order to run a search on available information related to the case.
“The city had like 20- something engineers” working on downtown pedestrian traffic safety issues such as the Street Smart Sebastopol pedestrian safety improvement program, said Rouda.
“The vast majority of communication between city employees and the consultants is by e-mail and we have not had access to any of that other than what the city deems suitable to print up and put in a file,” said Rouda. “That isn’t enough.”
Julia Bertoli was 15 and out for an evening of fun with three friends when she was crossing Healdsburg Avenue in the Florence Avenue crosswalk about 6 p.m. on her way to the Analy High School fireworks show. She was hit by a car driven by Linda Chilvers, a Sebastopol librarian, who was on her way home to Forestville.
Bertoli was thrown nearly 40 feet and suffered a broken neck, head injuries and broken bones in the accident, according to reports.
She was hospitalized in a coma from which she recovered but the accident has rendered her permanently physically and mentally disabled, said Rouda.
“She will have brain damage for the rest of her life,” said Rouda. “She cannot remember her friends names. She’s never going to be the same.”
Bertoli at the time of the accident was a student at the Sebastopol Orchard View Charter School.
Rouda represents Bertoli’s parents, Valerie and Charlie Bertoli, who filed suit for damages over the accident, charging the city, Sonoma County and Caltrans with negligence for not making the crosswalk safer.
City and state officials knew the Florence Avenue crosswalk was dangerous as indicated by several factors including an injury accident involving another pedestrian, Sebastopol resident Glen Clements, in 2006, said Rouda.
Sebastopol police conducted an investigation that could not determine who if anyone was at fault. Chilvers was not speeding or driving under the influence. Bertoli may have been talking on her cell phone.
Rouda said it is clearly established in law that the electronic records he wants are covered by the Public Records Act.
Access to public records “is one of the most fundamental basic rights that a citizen in this country has,” said Rouda.
“It’s the city’s duty to provide this information.”
The confidentiality concerns can be resolved by having a third party review the available information and ask the appropriate people whether the information is privileged. If not, Rouda would see the file.
If privilege is claimed, it would be up to the judge, in this case Superior Court Judge Mark Tansil, to look at the information in private and decide whether the information is part of the public record.
It’s now common practice in the legal discovery process to bring in electronic discovery companies to search electronic records, said Rouda.
“We’ve offered to pay and have the third party come in,” said Rouda.
The process of running a search on the city engineering, planning and public works department computers “would take about a day for all the computers in those departments,” said Rouda.
“It’s not burdensome. There’s no cost to the city. We pay for the entire thing,” said Rouda.
“I’ve done everything I think is reasonable to address the concerns,” said Rouda. “They’re still throwing up these roadblocks.”
Rouda is also seeking records from the County of Sonoma and the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as part of the discovery process in the civil case of Bertoli V. Sebastopol that charges the city and others with negligence that contributed to Bertoli’s injuries.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Mark Tansil last week granted a time extension until June 14 for a hearing on whether the city is violating the public records act.
The Florence Avenue intersection is one of several set for improvements under the Sebastopol Street Smart pedestrian safety improvement project that has been on going for approximately 10 years.
Phases III Street Smart improvements are set to begin next Monday on nine intersections including Florence Avenue, said Sue Kelly.
Improvements include bulb-outs, pedestrian-level lighting, sidewalk widening, continuous sidewalks where there were formerly gaps, refuge islands, pedestrian-actuated traffic signals, and tree-planting.
The Phase 3 project includes improvements on North Main at Keating; Healdsburg at Pitt; South Main at Calder; Healdsburg at Florence; Petaluma at Walker; South Main at Walker; Petaluma at Palm; South Main at Palm/Litchfield; Gravenstein South at Hutchins.
Frank Robertson can be reached at [email protected].
Lawsuit over 2009 accident has City on edge about privacy
<center></center> City staff and council e-mails sought in litigation
by Frank Robertson
Sonoma West Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 2:23 PM PDT
SEBASTOPOL — The attorney representing a young woman hit by a car in Sebastopol two years ago is suing the city over access to records regarding the potential hazards of walking downtown.
San Francisco attorney David Rouda is accusing city officials of “throwing up roadblocks” in violation of the state Public Records Act in the matter of Julia Bertoli, a Petaluma teenager who was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being struck by car while walking across Healdsburg Avenue on July 3, 2009.
Rouda wants to see city records going back more than 10 years including any e-mails from city officials discussing downtown city traffic hazards.
City officials have been providing Rouda with written public records regarding city traffic issues, but Rouda’s public records request includes city staff and City Councilmembers’ e-mails and other electronically stored information.
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From the city’s perspective the request is “way over-broad,” said Sebastopol Mayor Guy Wilson.
Asking to look inside the computers of everybody on the city staff “is very broad based,” said Wilson, and asking to see City Councilmembers personal e-mail could “invade privacy and go far beyond relevant issues in this case.”
As an attorney, asking for his e-mail might also violate attorney-client privilege if it meant granting access to confidential e-mails to and from his law clients, said Wilson.
“As a matter of precedent, for e-mail history to be rummaged through could be really problematic,” said Wilson.
“It’s a needle-in-a-haystack theory,” said Wilson, who is not representing the city in the Bertoli case. The city is represented by the Santa Rosa law firm of Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Gratton & Mitchell.
Sebastopol City Manager Jack Griffin and city Engineering Director Sue Kelly, both among the more than 30 defendants in the case, said they couldn’t comment. Sebastopol City Attorney Larry McLaughlin was not available.
Rouda said access to government e-mails and other electronically stored information is specifically covered in the Public Records Act.
Rouda wants access to the hard drives at the City Engineer’s office, the Planning Department and the Department of Public Works as well as the city’s engineering consultants in order to run a search on available information related to the case.
“The city had like 20- something engineers” working on downtown pedestrian traffic safety issues such as the Street Smart Sebastopol pedestrian safety improvement program, said Rouda.
“The vast majority of communication between city employees and the consultants is by e-mail and we have not had access to any of that other than what the city deems suitable to print up and put in a file,” said Rouda. “That isn’t enough.”
Julia Bertoli was 15 and out for an evening of fun with three friends when she was crossing Healdsburg Avenue in the Florence Avenue crosswalk about 6 p.m. on her way to the Analy High School fireworks show. She was hit by a car driven by Linda Chilvers, a Sebastopol librarian, who was on her way home to Forestville.
Bertoli was thrown nearly 40 feet and suffered a broken neck, head injuries and broken bones in the accident, according to reports.
She was hospitalized in a coma from which she recovered but the accident has rendered her permanently physically and mentally disabled, said Rouda.
“She will have brain damage for the rest of her life,” said Rouda. “She cannot remember her friends names. She’s never going to be the same.”
Bertoli at the time of the accident was a student at the Sebastopol Orchard View Charter School.
Rouda represents Bertoli’s parents, Valerie and Charlie Bertoli, who filed suit for damages over the accident, charging the city, Sonoma County and Caltrans with negligence for not making the crosswalk safer.
City and state officials knew the Florence Avenue crosswalk was dangerous as indicated by several factors including an injury accident involving another pedestrian, Sebastopol resident Glen Clements, in 2006, said Rouda.
Sebastopol police conducted an investigation that could not determine who if anyone was at fault. Chilvers was not speeding or driving under the influence. Bertoli may have been talking on her cell phone.
Rouda said it is clearly established in law that the electronic records he wants are covered by the Public Records Act.
Access to public records “is one of the most fundamental basic rights that a citizen in this country has,” said Rouda.
“It’s the city’s duty to provide this information.”
The confidentiality concerns can be resolved by having a third party review the available information and ask the appropriate people whether the information is privileged. If not, Rouda would see the file.
If privilege is claimed, it would be up to the judge, in this case Superior Court Judge Mark Tansil, to look at the information in private and decide whether the information is part of the public record.
It’s now common practice in the legal discovery process to bring in electronic discovery companies to search electronic records, said Rouda.
“We’ve offered to pay and have the third party come in,” said Rouda.
The process of running a search on the city engineering, planning and public works department computers “would take about a day for all the computers in those departments,” said Rouda.
“It’s not burdensome. There’s no cost to the city. We pay for the entire thing,” said Rouda.
“I’ve done everything I think is reasonable to address the concerns,” said Rouda. “They’re still throwing up these roadblocks.”
Rouda is also seeking records from the County of Sonoma and the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as part of the discovery process in the civil case of Bertoli V. Sebastopol that charges the city and others with negligence that contributed to Bertoli’s injuries.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Mark Tansil last week granted a time extension until June 14 for a hearing on whether the city is violating the public records act.
The Florence Avenue intersection is one of several set for improvements under the Sebastopol Street Smart pedestrian safety improvement project that has been on going for approximately 10 years.
Phases III Street Smart improvements are set to begin next Monday on nine intersections including Florence Avenue, said Sue Kelly.
Improvements include bulb-outs, pedestrian-level lighting, sidewalk widening, continuous sidewalks where there were formerly gaps, refuge islands, pedestrian-actuated traffic signals, and tree-planting.
The Phase 3 project includes improvements on North Main at Keating; Healdsburg at Pitt; South Main at Calder; Healdsburg at Florence; Petaluma at Walker; South Main at Walker; Petaluma at Palm; South Main at Palm/Litchfield; Gravenstein South at Hutchins.
Frank Robertson can be reached at [email protected].