Deliberative process privilege gone wild

The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise reports that county attorneys in San Bernardino County, Calif., have redacted large portions from expense records for county supervisors’ county-issued credit cards.

"It is important for the integrity of the process for me to meet with people," Board of Supervisors Chairman Paul Biane told the paper in a telephone interview justifying the redaction of names of meeting attendees from expense reports. "It is part of the deliberative process."

That smell in the air is the showdown brewing between this ever-expanding judicially created public records exemption and California’s Constitutional Sunshine Amendment.