(Aug. 2, 2018, 6:40 a.m.) -- In a significant proposed reduction to the right of LB's current and future City Auditors to access city materials, concealed from the public until after the City Council voted to advance it within a potential Charter Amendment ballot measure, Mayor Robert Garcia replaced text -- that he portrayed as a "small" change -- that would change the City Auditor's current "right of immediate access to all financial records of City" and replaced it with only "timely and responsible" access to "requested" City records.

"Timely" and "responsible" are both terms subject to interpretation, arguably giving elected city officials and non-elected city staff potential grounds to delay, obstruct or possibly argue against City Auditor access to materials to which the Auditor currently has a right of "immediate" access.

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The Garcia-inserted change wasn't publicly visible in agendized materials for the June 12 or the July 17 Charter Amendment Committee hearings. Instead, at the July 17 hearing, Garcia said there would be changes (that he didn't specify) to his proposed Charter Amendments regarding the City Auditor and a Redistricting Commission and called for public comment (on all five proposed Charter Amendments taken together.) After public testimony concluded, Garcia closed the hearing to further public testimony and described what he called a "small" change to the City Auditor item.

"There is a small change, and I want to make sure, it's in section 806. You have it referenced in front of you. This is a change that has been both requested and worked on by city staff, the City Attorney and the City Auditor's office," Garcia said and rapidly read aloud the lengthy legalistic sentence in which the new text is embedded...and didn't read the text it would replace.

"This is just a small change," Garcia said a second time. "It was already in the proposal, but this, just again, again assists and to ensure that we're able to have really strong performance audits and so we're grateful for the work of the Auditor on this. So that's section 806. You have it in front of you."

It's not immediately clear what Councilmembers had in front of them since no document reflecting a Mayoral letter or memo on the Garcia-announced change was visible online before or during the hearing. The significance of the change became publicly visible with the August 7 final hearing agenda item. Robert Fox, Executive Director of LB's grassroots Council of Neighborhood Organizations (CONO) spotted it and alerted LBREPORT.com to it (which we independently report here.)

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At the July 17 hearing, following a presentation by the Water Dept. supporting another Garcia-proposed Charter Amendment, and comments by Councilman Austin discussing changes to the Redistricting measure (and fending off public testimony that called the proposed Charter Amendments self-serving and not public serving), Councilman Al Austin made a motion to close the public hearing, set a final hearing on August 7 and "modify the Auditor amendment, section 806, as outlined by the Mayor" (and make changes to the Redistricting item.)

Mayor Garcia announced there was a second (which came from Vice Mayor Dee Andrews.) There was no Council discussion. Austin's motion carried 9-0.

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LBREPORT.com attempted to reach City Auditor Doud for comment via email and Facebook message on Aug. 1 after business hours; her response is pending. For the August 7 agenda item, the Mayor submitted a transmittal letter proposing deletion of the terms "and responsible" and "requested" from the July 17 revision he'd proposed and the Council approved.

The proposed Charter Amendment regarding the City Auditor already included a significant change to which Auditor Doud hasn't objected publicly. It would change the current City Charter requirement that the City Auditor file audits with the City Clerk, and instead direct the Auditor to file audits with the City Council.

At the initial June 12 Charter Amendment Committee hearing, City Auditor Doud acknowledged that the proposed City Charter change might not be legally required for her to conduct performance audits, which is the publicly-stated rationale for the proposed Charter Amendment. The July 17 hearing agenda item includes letters from a number of entities and jurisdictions supporting the proposed explicit inclusion in the LB City Charter of the City Auditor's right to conduct performance audits.

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In her June 12 testimony, Auditor Doud (who frequently focuses on taxpayer costs) didn't mention the cost of a conducting a special November citywide election. As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, the City Clerk has estimated at roughly $470,000 for one measure, and $45,000 for each additional measure, making the taxpayer cost roughly $650,000 if the Council puts all five Garcia-sought measures on a special November ballot.

Developing.

Aug. 2, 8:00 a.m.: Some text above revised for clarity not affecting substance. Aug 2, 4:15 p.m.: Additional coverage linked here reflecting Mayor's proposed revision to his July 17 revision and text above revised. Aug. 3, 8:45 a.m.: further text added re Mayor's transmittal letter.

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