Craig Alexander is CPC’s General Counsel. He is the principal of the Law Offices of Craig P. Alexander and has practiced law for over 30 years. He represents clients in litigation and non-litigation matters regarding the California Public Records Act, office leasing, insurance coverage, property damages, business litigation and general civil litigation matters. Through his efforts, clients have obtained government records hundreds of times – sometimes via litigation but most of time without resort to filing lawsuits. Craig’s experience also includes working for 10 years in the insurance claims industry, including for carriers that insured construction and design professionals for residential and commercial real estate projects. Craig is a graduate of Santa Clara University’s School of Law and he was admitted to the California State Bar in December 1987.
Making national news is the Rhode Island teachers union (backed up by the national teachers union) suing a local Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas to stop her accessing information about what her child is being taught in school. This follows comments by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingartenpromising to pay legal fees for teachers...
The economy has been booming over the last decade, which has provided local governments with a windfall in sales and property taxes. Despite the economic fat times, California cities have been complaining about their dire economic straits, with some of them even fearing insolvency unless something is done to change the financial trajectory. What explains...
MOVE OUT: U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton, California, preparing for deployment, Oct. 24, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by LCpl Anabel Abreu Rodriguez) Among the many burdens we place on military families, there’s frequent re-location from one military duty station to another – one year you’re in North Carolina, the next in Southern California or...
California’s state legislature is poised to pass two bills that will have profound effects on citizens’ rights to obtain documents from their governments under the California Public Records Act. One is a step forward for citizens (AB 1479) and one is a step backward (AB 1455). AB 1479 passed the Assembly by a vote of...
It is no secret that most government employees enjoy far more generous salaries and benefits than the public who pay for those benefits. It is important for the voters to know if their elected officials are properly representing them in these negotiations. The unions as private organizations are not required to conduct any of their...
Officials fought parents for years to keep children in a failing Anaheim school Parent-trigger warning In 2015 parents at the Palm Lane Elementary School of the Anaheim City School District turned in far more signatures than needed under the Parent Trigger Law (authored by former State Sen. Gloria Romero as Ed. Code sections 53300-53303). The goal...
Two California courts on a single day broadened the public’s access to government documents via a California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) request. In one case (City of San Jose v. Superior Court (Smith)), the California Supreme Court unanimously declared on March 2 that public officials’ e-mails and texts are in fact public documents, even when...
As a follow up to my post of last week (Anti-Choice Teachers Unions Want to Take Control of O.C. Board of Education), former State Senator Gloria Romero has penned another excellent op-ed piece in the O.C. Register. In Celebrating National Charter Schools Week Senator Romero not only noted that this week is a time to...
Everyone agrees that education for our children is a critical pathway for those children to grow into adults who are ready to earn a living and become responsible members of our society. Unfortunately labor unions including teachers unions have a different focus – to benefit their union bank accounts with your tax dollars more than...
We in Orange County have seen several versions of the COIN Ordinance (Community Openness In Negotiations). COIN ordinances provide for more and earlier disclosure to the taxpayers during and in the run up to the final approval of a contract between the public entity employer and a government employee union. This allows the citizens to...
Yesterday (July 16, 2015), after a seven day trial, Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Banks issued his decision awarding the parents and children who wished to convert their failing public school Palm Lane Elementary into a public charter school under the Parent Empowerment Act (also known as the Parent Trigger Law). To read the Court’s ruling...
On Monday, June 30, 2014 the United State Supreme Court issued its ruling in the important case of Harris v. Quinn. While the case is limited in its ruling and scope, it is a critical one where the Court boxed in the ever expansionist reach of government employee unions. Background: Mrs. Pamela Harris is the...