Something is going on with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. She’s deleting her text messages. The Los Angeles Times reported that the besieged mayor had deleted her texts. It gets worse: the purported messages she was sending to officials on the ground when the wildfires engulfed the county were never saved. Bass was partying in Ghana during its presidential inauguration when the wildfires erupted, despite a promise never to leave the country during her tenure as mayor.
We’re entering a legal paradigm where some argue the statutes do not require Bass to retain such communications, which appears to be true: most city records are only required to be retained for two years. It seems pretty clear that any messages relating to government business are a matter of public record. The point is that ‘I was in contact with those on the ground during the crisis as I flew back from a party I shouldn’t have attended’ narrative might have imploded. Or, at least, it should come under extreme scrutiny (via LA Times):
When flames erupted in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was more than 7,000 miles away, on a diplomatic mission to Africa.
Bass headed home shortly thereafter and was in transit for nearly 24 hours as the fire ravaged the Palisades and surrounding communities.
She and her office have said she was in constant communication during that period. But it’s impossible to know exactly what she was communicating, because her messages were not saved, according to a city lawyer.
“Her phone is set not to save text messages,” said the lawyer, David Michaelson.
Michaelson said that there is “no requirement that a city official or employee save text messages,” despite the fact that the city’s own document retention policies dictate that most records should be kept for at least two years.
Under state law, “any writing” related to the conduct of government is deemed a public record. On Jan. 10, The Times filed a public records request for all text messages sent or received by the mayor while she was in transit on Jan. 7 or Jan. 8 that mention fire response or her travel plans.
Bass has come under heavy criticism for being out of the country when the fire erupted amid a historically dry winter and forecasts of hurricane-force winds.
Nearly two months later, on Thursday, Bass’ office said it had “no responsive records,” without stating whether it was withholding any records or any reasons for not producing the records.
On Friday, responding to questions from The Times, Michaelson said that Bass’ phone auto-deletes text messages and has for at least two years.
Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 12.3(b)(6) dictates that most records “shall be retained for a minimum of two years unless a shorter period is otherwise permitted by law or a longer period is otherwise required by law, or unless, consistent with state law, a different period of retention is established by order or resolution of the Council.”
Michaelson argued that Section 12.3(b)(6) does not apply to texts, relying on a state attorney general opinion from 1981, long before text messages became a commonplace means of communicating.
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That argument isn’t holding water with other attorneys, some of whom deal directly with public records law, who called the argument Bass’ lawyer used “flawed.” They all saw through the legalese, which isn’t shocking given they’re lawyers: the mayor’s office is trying to say they have a right to say what’s public and what’s not without saying it. Moreover, the city doesn’t supersede state law on government retention of files.
Karen might have taken a nap during her entire flight back from Ghana. We don’t know because she decided to delete or not save some crucial communications relating to this crisis.
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