Atherton’s city attorney said he would decide by the end of this week whether to honor the Almanac’s request to make public a special investigator’s report on the Atherton Building Department.
The report by attorney Lance Bayer, who was hired by the town last winter, was kept under wraps and only recently released to the Atherton City Council in a closed session meeting.
Atherton residents and council members alike had been agitating to see the report. Atherton City Attorney Marc Hynes said that the employees’ right to privacy on personnel matters trumps the public’s right to know.
The Almanac is seeking release of the report because the lack of information has cast a cloud of suspicion over all building department employees, said Almanac News Editor Renee Batti.
Mr. Hynes said he would respond to the Almanac’s August 4 public records request no later than August 25. He referred to a current case in Santa Clara County Superior Court involving the release of a report about moonlighting city of Palo Alto utility workers, saying that developments in that case “may have a bearing on (the) release of some or all of the information you have requested from the town.”
