A watchdog group that\u00a0publishes\u00a0compensation data for California public officials has sued the state education department in San Diego court for refusing to provide key school officials\u2019 contact information\u00a0in a spreadsheet\u00a0it needs to request pay details from districts and charter schools.<\/p>\n
Transparent California, run by the nonprofit think tank Nevada Policy Research Institute, submits thousands of public record requests to public agencies each year to collect, then publish public officials\u2019 compensation information each year. It\u2019s the largest publicly accessible source of California officials\u2019 pay and pension.<\/p>\n
Transparent California collects key public officials\u2019 contact information in order to send them requests for the data under the state\u2019s Public Records Act. It says it relies on having the contacts in a spreadsheet so it can submit requests in bulk to the state\u2019s 935 school districts.<\/p>\n
When the group asked the state education department for email addresses of all school superintendents and business officers in a spreadsheet this summer, the department declined to provide it, even though it publishes that information online on individual webpages for each school district and charter school.<\/p>\n
The department used to publish such a downloadable dataset with officials\u2019 email addresses.<\/p>\n