Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Orange County have lost another public records lawsuit battle.
The decision came in Monday morning and rules that the cloud-based file sharing system called Dropbox is part of the public record. The political watchdog group known as Organize Now, filed a lawsuit in September claiming the county continued to block access to those records.
Judge Robert Egan of the Ninth Judicial Circuit ruled in the group’s favor, requiring the release of the requested records within 30 days. In court it was revealed that the county provided the group with a log book for the Dropbox account, but so much information was redacted that nothing could be read.
Organize Now released the following statement after the judge's ruling:
Today’s ruling is the third time in two years that the justice system has told Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs or her fellow commissioners to stop violating state open-record laws and its charter.
They mayor's office responded, noting that the judge acknowledged the request for records were not specifically directed to the mayor, and that she had no involvement with the responses made to those requests. They also said the judge recognized a "legitmate concern" over the disclosure of government IP addresses that would be better addressed by the legislature than the judiciary.
They mayor's office then issued the following statement:
We don’t agree with the decision. We are responsible for protecting crucial public health and safety infrastructure, including our 911 systems, our jail facilities, and providing clean drinking water to more than a half million residents. Internet Protocol (IP) addresses control everything from the cameras at the courthouse to the locks on the jail cells. We’re also concerned about the security of the health records and financial information of thousands of citizens. Releasing IP addresses leaves organizations vulnerable to the type of security breaches that the public sees every day on the news.