San Jose strip club coverup violates state records law
As on-duty San Jose firefighters final fall parked a fireplace truck, lights flashing, outdoors the Pink Poodle strip membership, a lady in a bikini exited the automobile.
It was captured on video. GPS monitoring data later confirmed that Engine 4 additionally traveled that evening to a bikini bar about two miles away.
“If the investigation concludes that this video is as dangerous because it seems, then heads should roll,” then-Mayor Sam Liccardo stated two days later. “We can’t have a life-critical emergency rescue equipment relegated to a frat occasion bus.”
We couldn’t agree extra.
But, metropolis officers have since claimed that it’s not one of the public’s enterprise who was accountable and what, if any, punishment was doled out. For six months now, San Jose has stonewalled this information group’s efforts to acquire paperwork in regards to the incidents.
Which is why final week we filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court docket demanding launch of the information in regards to the Pink Poodle fiasco.
Whereas we have now been dumbfounded at occasions by makes an attempt of presidency officers throughout the Bay Space and the state to cover wrongdoing from the general public, San Jose’s withholding of paperwork on this case is likely one of the most egregious.
Town claims that the general public’s curiosity is finest served by maintaining the paperwork secret. It’s an astounding assertion that if left to face would undermine the elemental precept of transparency embedded within the California Public Information Act.
Town additional claims that the paperwork are a part of personnel information shielded from disclosure. By no means thoughts that longstanding case regulation in California makes clear that when wrongdoing by public workers is discovered the information should be disclosed.
On this case, wrongdoing was clearly substantiated, and disciplinary motion was taken, as Fireplace Chief Robert Sapien Jr. acknowledged in a abstract memo he issued final month to the mayor and Metropolis Council.
However what precisely occurred? Why, because it turned out, did a fireplace truck exit of the world it was assigned to drop off an unauthorized male passenger at his office, the Pink Poodle? Who determined it was OK to then let a bikini-clad girl go for a ride-along? And who selected to then drive the firetruck to AJ’s, the bikini bar about two miles away?
And, maybe most vital, how extreme was the self-discipline meted out by Sapien for what he described as clear violations of metropolis and Fireplace Division insurance policies? It was apparently far wanting the “heads ought to roll” that Liccardo had demanded.
The Public Information Act is designed to supply solutions to questions similar to these, to supply public oversight to make sure correct accountability. However metropolis officers are attempting to thwart that oversight.
Liccardo’s successor, Mayor Matt Mahan, stated Thursday that the general public deserves higher transparency. “It isn’t sufficient to say that applicable disciplinary motion has been taken,” Mahan stated. “The general public wants sufficient data to determine that for themselves.”
Once more, we agree. However Metropolis Lawyer Nora Frimann and apparently a majority of the Metropolis Council don’t. They’re those accountable for this coverup, for the failure to adjust to the state’s transparency regulation.
Each second counts when an emergency automobile is named into motion. Firefighters routinely face life-and-death conditions. It’s important that they do all the pieces potential to make sure they’re prepared and correctly positioned when referred to as into motion.
As an alternative, these concerned on this scandal took an emergency automobile for a pleasure experience. There should be correct accountability — for the firefighters accountable and the town officers enabling this half-year coverup.
