A California TV journalist has won a legal battle against Governor Gavin Newsom over access to public records. Reporter Brandon Rittiman filed suit in August 2023 after a public records request to the governor’s office wasn’t properly fulfilled, Courthouse News reports. Newsom must show within two months that he’s complied with the order. Rittiman, a KXTV-TV/ABC 10 reporter, asked to see all calendar entries involving Ann Patterson, Newsom’s cabinet secretary, after she spoke at PG&E’s Investor Day last May, after a deadly fire for which the utility giant faced criminal and civil penalties for not removing a dead tree that let to the fire.
Patterson appeared at the event a week after a proposed $150 million settlement for the Zogg Fire, which left four people dead, was announced. Newsom’s office said, among other reasons, the records were exempt from disclosure because they were part of Newsom’s correspondence and revealed his or his staff’s deliberative process. Judge Chang disagreed with his reasoning. “The public interest in the number of times Ms. Patterson met with PG&E representatives in the same month that the (California Public Utilities Commission) agreed to a settlement of $140 million less than the initial fine sought is clearly significant and of interest to the public,” Chang wrote, calling Newsom’s arguments a “parade of horribles” lacking in information that showed withholding the information outweighs its release.