A California lawmaker is demanding that the state's High Speed Rail Authority put thousands of pages of documents back their website for the public to see. State Assemblyman Jim Patterson is complaining that older documents related to the voter-approved project are now only available via public records requests.
"That puts the High-Speed Rail Authority in the position of being able to deny the public records act," said Patterson. He has been a critic of the project for years and insists the HSRA lacks sufficient accountability and oversight. The project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
Patterson claims the HSRA did not warn the public about changes to their website.
"In the dead of night with no announcement they took down thousands of pages of key documents that I have been able to use and acces to get the audit, to the get media interested in some watchdog reporting, and they've essentially shutdown that tool."
HSRA officials say the older documents were summarized online to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Patterson, a Fresno Republican, says he's not buying that explanation.