City Att'y Seeks State Att'y General's Office Review For Investigation And Appropriate Action After Learning Of Email Seeking Volunteers To Oppose Pearce Recall Allegedly Sent On City Computer During Scheduled Work Hours By An Employee In Councilwoman Pearce's Office

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(May 11, 2018, 5:35 p.m.) -- LBREPORT.com has learned that the Long Beach City Attorney's office mailed a May 10 letter to the Los Angeles office the state Attorney General requesting its "review of information" it enclosed "for investigation and appropriate action"...and enclosed two email items it alleges were "sent by a Long Beach city employee from a city computer during scheduled work hours."

The City Attorney office's letter -- a "referral" letter, addressed to James Root in the state Attorney General's Los Angeles office -- states that "the employee, Devin Ablard, works as communications director for Long Beach Councilmember Jeannine Pearce, who is currently the subject of a recall campaign." It says the "email requests volunteers to oppose the recall campaign" and alleges "This appears to constitute an improper use of public resources for political purposes."

LBREPORT.com sought comment/response to the allegations and invited information on what occurred from Mr. Ablard, who told LBREPORT.com on May 10 (7 p.m. hour): "I'm declining to comment at this time." LBREPORT.com also sought comment/response from Councilwoman Pearce via email and messaging to her Facebook page at early morning May 11 but received no response by the end of the May 11 business day.

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The City Attorney's referral letter attached two April 30 emails that indicate they were sent about five minutes from each other with slightly differing texts.

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The first email was sent at 11:07 a.m. April 30 from Mr. Ablard to himself, indicating it was "Sent from my SpringSamsung Galaxy S7." Its text stated:
Urgent Request for our friend Jeannine Pearce!! The Recall campaign has claimed to be close to finishing their signature gathering. We NEED everyone out TMRW and Monday. We can still block this effort to our allie [sic] and that will cost our city $250k+ because of the hotel lobby. We need volunteers tmrw. Sunday: 11-8 and Monday: 3-8 @ 319 W. Broadway 90802. Please have folks confirm with [first name redacted by LBREPORT.com] (323) [number redacted by LBREPORT.com]
The second email was sent at 11:12 a.m. April 30 with slightly revised text to fifty bcc'd email addressees with the subject line: "Bixby Barkers, We Need Your Help." [Bixby Barkers is a grassroots group of Bixby Park dog park users/supporters.] The second email corrected a text typo (changed "allie" to "ally"), deleted TMRW/tmrw [tomorrow], stated [all caps] "TODAY" [Monday April 30] and concluded with Mr. Ablard's formatted typed name, Council office title, City Hall address, office phone and email contacts, followed by the 2nd district/Jeannine Pearce graphic/logo.

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