Cerritos College
Any “predecessor emails” (the emails which generated a request, or clarified the terms of the request, or followed up on a request before the initial response) will be disclosed upon a request to the OIC for them.
Pending Requests
Cerritos College has responded to all CPRA requests from the OIC.
Disclosed Public Records
“Security Guidance Document“. Uploaded by Amy Parker. Received from Cerritos College Vice President/Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Felipe Lopez (“VP/AS Lopez”, now “EVP/AS Lopez” to indicate the prefixing of “Executive” onto his title) on January 25, 2023. View the provenance document and Lopez’s response letter. This document contains the college’s “security justifications” for some of their blocking methods. It is comprised of a California state warning (classified TLP:CLEAR with additional state warning markers), news articles about Russian intelligence threats, other Information Community articles of varying publicity, and the most important and shocking information – TLP:GREEN classified information. This information is thankfully not a direct threat to the college, thus why it is published here; however, it should not have been disclosed. It should be noted that nothing in this document actually answers the original PRA request.
“Amy Logs 1” and “Amy Logs 2“. Uploaded by Amy Parker. Received from VP/AS Lopez on February 10, 2023. View the provenance document and response letter. Also view the preliminary conversation, initial response, and extension document. (More in depth copies of all of the email chains can be provided upon request, but were determined immaterial to be uploaded here; if a request for these documents is submitted, they will be provided here). These are logs provided of Amy’s personal devices’ network activity on the Cerritos College network. They are significantly slimmer than what is known to have been collected, but they do still show worrying patterns and affirm the December 5 Document. They are also concerning due to Lopez declaring them public records; an individual’s traffic history and search history should never be considered a public record under California state law and under general common sense.
“FPC PRA“. Uploaded by Amy Parker. Received from VP/AS Lopez on March 27, 2023. View the first response letter and the provenance document. Data summary: for FY21-22, $0.00 revenues and $0.00 expenditures on menstrual products. This request sought information about the Cerritos Community College District’s expenditures for the 2021-2022 fiscal year within the scope of in-bathroom dispensers. This document confirms reports from students and staff/faculty that the dispensers were empty, as no products were purchased to refill the dispensers.
“PO1-64360-02210-AOI230000001-3-Modification“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on March 26, 2023, and was disclosed on April 4, 2023. View the provenance document. This request sought a purchase order by IT of $16,000; it ended up demonstrating that Cerritos College purchase orders do not include itemizations.
“Financial Handling PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on March 25, 2023, and was disclosed on April 18, 2023. View the provenance document and original extension letter. This request sought information about how the District was previously handling COLA funds and ucrrently handling adjunct faculty healthcare funds provided by the State of California.
“PRA Handling PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on April 4, 2023, and was disclosed on April 13, 2023. View the provenance document. This request sought information about how the District was handling Public Records Act requests; it covered all from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. Lopez unnecessarily censored the January-March 2022 results out from the data when he could’ve just left the document as-is.
“IT PO Itemization PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on April 4, 2023, and was disclosed on April 13, 2023. View the provenance document and the District’s response letter. This request sought the breakdown of what was purchased on PO1-64360… that was previously outlined by the OIC as potentially troubling. The itemization revealed that the Department of Information Technology kept an essentially blank check open for Amazon, increasing the allocation from $5k to $8k and then to $16k without ever charging to it.
“Fortinet Expenditure PRA Request“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on March 22, 2023, and was disclosed on April 26, 2023 (a time limit violation). View the provenance document, and view the extension letter. This document sought Cerritos’ expenditures on Fortinet products. They expended $96k on Fortinet technology in the middle of the pandemic (something faculty and staff have complained about as a “snuck in change”).
“Canvas Usage Hours“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to VP/AS Mercedes Gutierrez (“VP/AS Gutierrez”) on April 28, 2023, and was disclosed on May 8, 2023 by EVP/AS Lopez. View the provenance document and the District’s response letter. This is from the same request as the CCC SMF Positions Research document. It details how much time certain staff/manager-faculty members spent on Canvas during their normal work hours. The numbers, however, appear to be entirely incorrect – they grossly underestimate the total time spent on Canvas by faculty.
“CCC SMF Positions Research“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to VP/AS Gutierrez on April 28, 2023, and was disclosed on May 8, 2023 by EVP/AS Lopez. View the provenance document and the District’s response letter. This is from the same request as the Canvas Usage Hours document. It shows the policies of many different California Community Colleges with regards to allowing staff/managers to take on faculty positions.
“PO1-64360-01200-230000000370-1-New“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on May 18, 2023, and received from EVP/AS Lopez on May 22, 2023. View the provenance document; the response letter is contained in the record. This request audited a strange item listing on the District’s budget sheets. It turns out that, for many services, Bank of America is who the purchase order is made out to – regardless of who the actual target of the funding is. The purchase order, however, does show where the funding went.
“Links to C23-272 and C23-273“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on April 29, 2023, and received on May 8, 2023. This request was for two contract documents which were separately listed from all other contracts, sparking interest at the OIC.
“CCAP Partnership Agreement with ABCUSD“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on June 25, 2023, and received on June 28, 2023. Duplicate documents with those received by ABCUSD.
“SS312 Emails“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on November 4, 2023, and received on November 20, 2023. View the provenance document.
Leaked Public Records
“December 5 Document“. Uploaded by Amy Parker. Received from Cerritos College Research and Instruction Coordinator Stephanie Rosenblatt. View the provenance document. This document contains a list of the categories of websites that for direct traffic and searches are either “allowed”, “monitored” (user’s access logged), or “blocked” (no access) on the college’s network. It started Amy’s investigation, due to many of the categories being problematic; that investigation led to the formation of the OIC.
“HR Classified Faculty Memo“. Uploaded by Amy Parker. Obtained through a staff/faculty member’s leak to the Cerritos College Faculty Senate. This document was anonymously provided to the Faculty Senate for its resolution regarding the college administration’s decision to strip staff/managers of their faculty positions.
Unsuccessful Requests
Full responsibility for denials is not available due to Lopez’s refusal to properly fulfill 7922.540/6253(d).
“Port/Domain List PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to Cerritos College Director of Information Technology Patrick O’Donnell (Director O’Donnell) by Amy Parker on December 2, 2022, and denied on December 9, 2022 by VP/AS Lopez. View the full provenance document (shared with the December 4 request).This request attempted to get a list of ports, protocols, domains and services available on the college network; it was denied (incorrectly) for “security reasons” due to an opinion by the Cerritos College legal team.
“Investigation Communications PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to VP/AS Lopez by Amy Parker on December 4, 2022, and denied on the basis of no records existing by VP/AS Lopez on December 13, 2022. View the full provenance document (shared with the December 2 request).This request attempted to generate all of the correpsondence and security/insurance/legal decisions that led to the call for SSH to be unblocked to be denied.
“Document Revelation PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to Director O’Donnell on January 2, 2023, and denied on January 10, 2023 by VP/AS Lopez. View the full provenance document. This request attempted to generate the most recently available version of the December 5 Document. Cerritos College’s legal department forbid its release, causing the request to be denied; however, Lopez also claimed that the document did not exist in any form and could not be created, a directly false statement.
“Legal/Security PRA and 6253(d) Enforcement Request“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to VP/AS Lopez and Director of Facilities Anthony Parker on February 24, 2023, and denied on March 6, 2023 by VP/AS Lopez. View the full provenance document. This request attempted to get the security and legal opinions that were used to deny the SSH/ICMP appeal and other Public Records Act requests, as well as to name those responsible for writing said opinions. Lopez refused to comply with this request, or to properly respond when it was demonstrated how his denials were not applicable.
“Enterprise Systems PRA“. Provided by Amy Parker. Sent to EVP/AS Lopez on October 8, 2023, and denied on October 18, 2023 by EVP/AS Lopez. View the provenance document. This request for the District’s enterprise systems catalog was denied on a claim that the District is exempt from creating one under GOV 7922.710, a claim which the OIC accepts and does not contest.
Reports Within Public Record
“Information Technology Report“. Created and provided by Amy Parker. Presented to and signed in the ASCC Cabinet meeting on January 23, 2023. This report was the mid-point climax of the Information Technology investigation, laying out everything the Department of Information Technology and the Office of Business Services had done thus far.