Sin Barras CPRA request for federal grant award letters and contracts to Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office (via County of Santa Cruz)

John Colby's Freedom of Information Campaign against Human Rights abuse in Santa Cruz [link]
* Santa Cruz retaliates against Human Rights advocate John Colby [link]
* Human Rights abuse in itty-bitty Santa Cruz [link] 

Note that Sin Barras is generously footing the bill for FOI requests made on their behalf.

2013-07-04 "CPRA request for federal grant award letters and contracts to Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office (via County of Santa Cruz)" 
message to Phil Wowak, Sheriff–Coroner at Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office [701 Ocean Street, Suite 340 Santa Cruz, CA 95060]:
Dear Sheriff–Coroner Wowak:
I am writing as a member of the activist group Sin Barras to submit a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request. Sin Barras is a grassroots organization based in Santa Cruz, California whose purpose is to — through building community based coalitions — create economically effective and socially just alternatives to what we term the "prison industrial complex". To learn more about Sin Barras, please reference the links below:
* [http://tinyurl.com/m8ggv3x]
* [http://tinyurl.com/keobxtu]
* [https://www.facebook.com/sinbarras]
* [http://sinbarras.wordpress.com/]

In order to determine if the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office (SCSO) is violating the nondiscrimination requirements of its active federal grants and contracts, I am making the following request under the CPRA:
* I ask for copies of the award letters for the active federal grants to the SCSO (via the County of Santa Cruz) as well as copies of the active contracts between the SCSO (via the County of Santa Cruz) and the federal government.

I am making this records request in anticipation of enforcement actions against the SCSO for violating the civil rights of disabled people. I plan to share the responsive records with the news media. Because of the intense interest in these issues, I ask you to waive any applicable fees (search, retrieval, redaction and duplication) in the public interest. I plan to post the responsive records to the following Facebook groups:
* [www.facebook.com/groups/OpenTransparentAccountableGovernment]
* [www.facebook.com/sinbarras]

I ask:
* if you determine that any or all or the information qualifies for an exemption from disclosure, to note whether, as is normally the case under the Act, whether the exemption is discretionary, and if so whether it is necessary in this case to exercise your discretion to withhold the information.
* in case you decide that any of the information is exempt, please explain how the interest in not disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.
* in case you decide that any responsive records are exempt from disclosure please list them and the claimed exemptions for me so that I may exercise my due process rights in disputing the exemption and otherwise exercise my rights under the CPRA administratively or in a court of law.
* if you determine that some but not all of the information is exempt from disclosure and that you intend to withhold it, that you redact it for the time being and make the rest available as requested.
* if there is any information in these records which is private and you decide it is exempt information, yet it is in an otherwise disclosable document, please segregate the private information by redacting it while providing me the rest of the unredacted record.
* if these documents are available in an electronic format such as Portable Document Format (PDF), eXtensible Style Language (XLS), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Hypertext Markup (HTM), MS Powerpoint Presentation (PPT), MS Word Document (DOC), Rich Text Format (RTF), plain electronic text (TXT), native email formats — like AOL for Windows, Apple Mail, Claris Emailer, Compuserve, EML, Entourage, Eudora, Maildir, MBOX File, Mulberry, Neoplanet, Outlook, Outlook Express, Outspring, Powertalk, Quickmail Pro, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo Archive! — or as hyperlinks to the Internet that they be provided to me in one of those forms, preferably in their native form.

I am willing to pay a fee of up to $50 for this request. If you estimate the cost of my CPRA request will exceed this, please contact me first before completing my CPRA request. Please contact me if you have any questions about this request.

Thank you for your assistance in protecting the civil rights of disabled people in the County of Santa Cruz.
Sincerely yours, [signed] John E. Colby, Ph.D.