Horn Blowing Prompts FOI Requests Prompting Risk of Walkout by Firefighters

An elected official in Illinois says she is tired of being harassed by volunteer firefighters sounding their horns when they drive fire apparatus by her house. However, according to the fire chief her strategy may prompt many members of the ...

Firefighters Union Ordered to Pay $23k in Attorneys Fees in Public Records Case

In a ruling that one public records attorney called “unprecedented”, a California judge has ordered a firefighters’ union to pay the attorneys fee of a public watch dog group who sought the release of records that the union sought to ...

Judge Orders New York City To Release Report on 911 System

A state court judge in New York has ordered the city of New York to release copies of a consultant’s report on the city’s 911 system and response times. The Uniformed Fire Officers Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association filed ...

Text Messaging and Public Records Laws

Today’s burning question: Our union attended a city council meeting, and during the course of the meeting we observed one of the councilmen texting. Are his texts subject to the public record laws? I mean, wouldn’t it be awesome if ...

Open Records Chaos in Connecticut

Public officials in Connecticut are in an uproar over a recent state supreme court decision that requires the addresses of police officers, corrections officers and firefighters to be redacted from publically accessible motor vehicle tax lists. The decision has implications ...

Threats, Investigations, Garrity, and Public Records

The strange case of a female battalion chief in Montana is back in the news again… and back in court. Recall last winter, Frenchtown BC Jenny Ross claimed that Fire Chief John Bibler threatened to kill her, her dog and ...

New Mexico Hazing Prompts Open Records Demand

Another hazing case is in the news, and once again sex is at the center of it. In New Mexico, the Rio Rancho Fire and Rescue disciplined five employees following an investigating into allegations that four male firefighters in the ...

Volunteer Fire Companies and Freedom of Information – Open Records Laws

Freedom of information laws have become such a vital part of how modern government operates, that it is hard to remember that prior to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, much of the operations of government were cloaked in secrecy. ...

Release of Random Drug Testing Results Raise HIPAA Challenge

Fire Lieutenant Shawn Baptist was fired last year from the Zephyrhills, Florida Fire Department after he allegedly failed a random drug test on February 23, 2009. He is challenging the termination as well as the results of the test through ...

Public Records Law Versus Firefighter Bill of Rights

A recent case involving the Anderson Fire Protection District, in California points out the challenges that sometimes occur when complying with open records laws. In May, 2009, the district board placed the fire chief on leave while it investigated allegations ...

Open Records Law Suit in California

The Anderson Fire Protection District, in Anderson, California has been sued by The Record Searchlight to obtain an investigator's report on the conduct of its former fire chief. Attorney Walter McNeill, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the newspaper in Shasta ...