The California State Legislature has declared that access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in California, as set forth in the California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.). 

 The Public Records Act broadly defines "public records" to include written and recorded records, unless the Public Records Act or other law exempts the record from disclosure. Pursuant to Government Code Section 6252(e), public records "includes any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public's business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state and local agency regardless of physical form of characteristics." The Public Records Act provides for public access to records the City of Live Oak generates, as well as records created by others that the City has in its possession. 

The Public Records Act provides disclosure of existing identifiable records. The City is not required to prepare new records in response to a request, or to compile, synthesize, summarize, or index information or records in a form that does not exist at the time of the request. 

A city agency receiving a request for documents under the Public Records Act has ten days in which to respond to the request.