Mayor Karen Bass is deleting her text messages, raising eyebrows and questions
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It's Sunday. I'm your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here's what you need to know to start your weekend:
Shortly after the Palisades fire erupted on Jan. 7, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass hopped on a flight home.
She was roughly 7,000 miles away on a diplomatic trip to Ghana and faced a roughly 24-hour return trip.
During that time, her staff said they were in constant contact with the mayor.
What was communicated, however, remains a mystery.
My colleagues Julia Wick and Matt Hamilton discovered that Bass' text messages during this time were not saved. They had a simple question: Why?
Tale of the text
A city lawyer, David Michaelson, told The Times that Bass' phone is set not to save text messages, and there is 'no requirement that a city official or employee' do so.
This is despite the fact that the city's own document retention policies require most records be kept for two years at least.
How did the text issue come about?
Times reporters filed a public records request with the city on Jan. 10.
They specifically asked for all text messages sent and received by the mayor as she was returning from Africa on Jan. 7 or Jan. 8 that specifically mentioned fire response or travel plans.
Bass left Accra, Ghana, at about 9 p.m. on Jan. 7, (1 p.m. local time) and traveled the first leg on a military plane, where she could make phone calls and communicate by text and email.
The next morning, she flew commercial from Washington Dulles International Airport and would have been able to communicate only by email and text.
She reached Los Angeles International Airport at 11:24 a.m. on Jan. 8, according to her itinerary and flight records.
It took about two months, but Bass' office eventually responded to The Times' request, saying it had 'no responsive records.'
Interpretation of text obligations
Michaelson said Friday that Bass' phone auto-deletes text messages. He added that this wasn't new and the setting has been in place for at least two years.
Michaelson contended that city administrative code regarding retention, particularly Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 12.3(b)(6), does not apply to texts. That statute 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.'
That interpretation received some push back, however.
Other agencies and officials have released a multitude of records from the early days of the fire in response to public records requests. California law dictates the release of these kind of records, unless there is a specific exemption.
First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy argued that Bass' texts should be retained.
'As I read the plain language of L.A.'s own administrative code, the city imposed upon itself a more stringent record retention requirement than state law might otherwise require,' he told The Times.
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In prison and seemingly unable to escape a destructive cycle that began when he was a child, Ahmed Bellozo spent hours watching investigative journalism shows, educational documentaries and Huell Howser's homespun travelogue, 'California's Gold.' It was a way, he said, to distract from his pain.
Years later, out of prison and wanting a drastic change in his life, Bellozo turned to those shows for inspiration as he reinvented himself on social media as the star of 'On the Tira' — a video series that's part showcase of local landmarks, part investigative journalism and part hyperlocal news about fires and car accidents across the Inland Empire communities he's lived in for most of his life.
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That evening outside Eaton Canyon, the fire spread without halting. First it was 400 acres without containment, then 800. She had loved the canyon. It offered a sanctuary after her divorce. It is a place where she built a life with her husband and child. Though her house did not burn, the scars from the Eaton fire run deep. Will she fall in love with Eaton Canyon again as she once did?
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