Court orders LAUSD to release union membership records in transparency win for Californians
Dear John,
California Policy Center (CPC) has won an important victory for government transparency in its lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In a decision released Wednesday, January 15, 2025, in California Policy Center vs Los Angeles Unified School District, Superior Court Judge Stephen Goorvitch ruled that LAUSD must produce union membership and dues records under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) and that the Act’s collective bargaining exemption does not apply to such records.
Since the decision by the United States Supreme Court in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, (2018) 585 U.S. 878, 138 S.Ct. 2448, holding that public employees cannot be required to pay agency fees if they opt out of their union, CPC has requested, under the CPRA, certain data from LAUSD to track the number of employees who opt out of paying union dues. LAUSD refused CPC’s most recent request, arguing that all records pertaining to “labor relations” are exempt from public disclosure under the CPRA. The court rejected this broad interpretation, which if accepted, might have blocked public access to most documents pertaining to the LAUSD’s relationships with its employee unions.
“This is an important victory for government transparency in California,” said Craig Alexander, the attorney representing California Policy Center in the case. “The California Public Records Act exists to provide citizens with access to government records. School officials cannot misuse narrow exemptions as an excuse to hide non-exempt documents from the people.”
CPC brought the lawsuit against LAUSD after the district denied CPC’s public records request asking LAUSD to produce records showing the number of LAUSD employees who are union members and the amounts the District has paid in union dues during a specified time period. Specifically, CPC asked LAUSD to provide records about the monthly and total amount of union dues paid by LAUSD in May-August, 2023, to each collective bargaining unit and professional management association with which LAUSD had entered contracts.
LAUSD denied the request, relying on an exemption pertaining to certain collective bargaining documents.
Judge Goorvitch rejected the district’s argument, and ruled the records were not exempt as “they play no role in the LAUSD’s labor negotiations; they are merely payroll records.”
The judge granted California Policy Center’s petition for writ of mandate in part, holding that the Los Angeles Unified School District shall either: (a) Produce the accounting records reflecting whether each employee is paying union dues and the amounts paid (with any appropriate redactions); or (b) Identify and produce records and/or information that is responsive to the purpose of Petitioner's request, e.g., extract the responsive data and produce a copy to Petitioner.
“Public unions are among the most powerful special interest groups in California,” said Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center. “This is an important step in shining a light on their relations with school districts.”
The court order can be read here.
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