| (Nov. 11, 2020, 8:45 a.m.) -- On Nov. 11, LBREPORT.com (first again) reported rhat City Auditor Laura Doud is seeking Nov. 17 City Council approval to destroy over 30 years of City Auditor office records. We moved immediately to obtain lists (not linked publicly) showing the types of documents in 56 boxes of records currently slated for destruction,
The item, nominally agendized by the City Clerk, says in an accompanying memo that the Clerk "worked with [the City Auditor office] to review the records destruction" and the "City Attorney and the City Auditor's Office concur" in the recommended destruction. The Auditor records slated for destruction were vaguely described publicly as "working papers" (going back to 1986) and as "administrative files" (going back to 1987) along with some contract files. Nearly all of the 56 boxes of records indicated an accompanying (but unlinked) "list" of records in each box. On Friday Nov. 13, the City Clerk's office provided LBREPORT.com, at our request, with each list for each of the 56 boxes of documents. LBREPORT.com is now reviewing each of the lists for each of the 56 boxes of records, a labor intensive, time consuming effort. [We don't believe our competitors, who haven't reported this story to date, have the lists and we're keeping them closely held for now.] The item is on the Council's Nov. 17 "consent calendar," a list (unusually long for the Nov. 17 meeting) of 48 items that the Council can approve without individual discussion in a single vote unless a Council member requests an item's separate discussion and a separate Council vote. LBREPORT.com is reliably informed that document destruction requests have been routinely put on the LB Council's consent calendar for at least the past ten years (if not longer.) However LBREPORT.com notes that the pace at which record destruction requests have appeared on Council agendas has visibly increased in recent years. They include the notorious Council-approved destruction of over two decades of LBPD records two weeks before a new state law (SB 1421) took effect that requires public access to previously-concealed records of certain internal investigations of officer involved shootings, major uses of force, confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. On December 18, 2018 (the final Council meeting of the year), the Long Beach City Council voted 9-0 to approve a "consent calendar' item to destroy LBPD Internal Affairs Division documents, some spanning 1978-2001 [Use of Force Reviews 2013 July-Nov; Internal Affairs Complaint Investigations 1978-2001 (Jan-Dec); and Internal Affairs Complaint Investigations 2013 July-Nov.] Independent outlet Forthe.org broke the story at this link. The motion to approve the consent calendar containing the LBPD documents was made by Councilman Uranga, seconded by Councilwoman Pearce. The Councilmembers voting "yes" were Lena Gonzalez [elected state Senator June 2019], Jeannine Pearce, Suzie Price, Daryl Supernaw, Stacy Mungo, Vice Mayor Dee Andrews, Roberto Uranga, Al Austin and Rex Richardson. [Scroll down for further.] |
    |
| The City Auditor documents now proposed for destruction span more than three decades of LB's history. The time period includes the loss of Disney Sea, the exit of LB auto dealerships to Signal Hill, the loss of the LB Naval shipyard, the loss/destruction of the amenity-filled Naval Station (demolished for a Port container facility), plans for the Aquarium (which hasn't performed as LB taxpayers were told), the "Queensway Bay Entertainment and Retail Project" (which didn't deliver a promised regional attraction), an LBPD "strategic plan" that included a "preliminary staffing strategy" to reach 1,024 officers by FY2000 (never delivered to taxpayers), years of city employee agreements that imposed generous city employee pension costs on LB taxpayers, the notorious 2002 "pension spike" (that 2006 Mayoral candidates Doug Drummond and Bob Foster both said left LB with "pension potholes"), and perhaps most telling: the Queen Mary in which years of operators/lessees were allowed to defer maintenance items that have now left LB taxpayers facing with millions in unbudgeted costs. (Doud is the only remaining citywide LB elected in office for the Queen Mary operations period from mid-2006 to the present.)
An initial quick check of the lists of City Auditor documents doesn't display these hot button topics. However, a closer reading idnicates number of categories may pertain or otherwise reference some of these or other newsworthy LB civic matters. Developing. Further to follow on LBREPORT.com.
blog comments powered by Disqus Recommend LBREPORT.com to your Facebook friends:
Follow LBReport.com with:
Contact us: mail@LBReport.com |
  
 |
