Well, last Wednesday, November 9, 2005, Robert Sammis, the Vice President of Planning and Development at Santa Monica College, turned over documents belonging to the Academy of Entertainment and Technology (AET). However, as usual, the documents turned over were incomplete. There were no enrollment records for AET, no bills or receipts for the money spent since the Academy's inception, no documents showing where the over $1 million given by then Governor Pete Wilson went to, etc.
Slowly, it appears we are piercing through SMC's legal armor, but it is a slow, uphill battle to make SMC accountable. It seems that an Ex Parte application is inevitable to compel SMC to produce the documents belonging to the public and as mandated under the California Public Records Act (CPRA).
The Academy was granted status as an educational center pursuant to the California Postsecondary Education Commission's findings. Yet, the only documents we received were those found on the Internet and not the original documentation submitted to the CPEC justifying the center's existence. Where did those documents go? To make it appear that SMC was complying with the law under the CPRA, Sammis xeroxed not one, but two sets of the CPEC report so it would look like we received a large volume of documents. Still, we want the report submitted by those in charge at SMC.
We will continue our fight to obtain documents that are beneficial to the public.