{"id":2383092,"date":"2024-12-23T14:39:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T19:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-claims-la-city-employees-use-auto-deleting-chats-to-discuss-business-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-12-23T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T19:42:38","slug":"lawsuit-claims-la-city-employees-use-auto-deleting-chats-to-discuss-business-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-claims-la-city-employees-use-auto-deleting-chats-to-discuss-business-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit claims LA city employees use auto-deleting chats to discuss business &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawsuit-claims-la-city-employees-use-auto-deleting-chats-to-discuss-business-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2383092&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Los Angeles\u2062 City Attorney&#8217;s Office is investigating\u200d allegations that city\u200b employees are utilizing auto-deleting Google Chat messages\u200d to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joe-biden-hunter-biden-and-parental-love\/\" title=\"Joe and Hunter Biden: A Tale of Love\">discuss business matters<\/a>. Critics argue that this practise \u2064allows officials to circumvent compliance\u200b with the California\u200c Public Records Act, as these messages self-delete after 24 hours. The scrutiny arises from a 2023 conflict involving the city and the Crane Boulevard \u2063safety Coalition, which discovered the use\u200c of disappearing messages during a dispute over a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-home-sales-rose-in-december-in-bright-spot-for-market\/\" title=\"December saw an increase in new home sales, providing a positive outlook for the market\">housing construction project<\/a> in Mount Washington, which the\u2064 coalition\u2063 opposed. City officials acknowledged\u200c that employees \u2063were permitted\u200c to communicate through\u2063 this \u2063platform both internally\u200d and externally.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Lawsuit claims LA city employees use auto-deleting chats to discuss business<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1888127\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/los-angeles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Los Angeles\">Los Angeles<\/a> City Attorney&rsquo;s Office is launching an investigation into employees&rsquo; use of Google Chat after critics claimed the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">auto-deleting messages allowed officials<\/a> to bypass their own policy and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"California\">California<\/a> Public Records Act.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Google Chat messages are automatically deleted after 24 hours.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry into their use came during a 2023 dispute between the city and the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, which stumbled on the disappearing messages after the city approved the construction of a home in Mount Washington. The safety coalition was against it.<\/p>\n<p>City officials admitted that employees&nbsp;were given the option of communicating with people, both internally and&nbsp;externally, through the use of the auto-deleted messages. They refused to explain why this practice was allowed or how it complies with the state public records law that demands most records be preserved for at least two years, the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2024-12-23\/l-a-city-officials-use-disappearing-google-chats-the-city-attorney-is-investigating\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"reported \">reported <\/a>Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The City of L.A. has a history of corruption and self-dealing, and this allows a platform for those deals to be facilitated without fear that anyone will find the evidence, because the chats are deleted within 24 hours,&rdquo; said Jamie T. Hall, an attorney representing the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition. &ldquo;The Public Records Act exists in order to ensure that there&rsquo;s openness and transparency, and when records are deleted purposefully, it undermines democracy and facilitates corruption.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The coalition challenged the city&rsquo;s approval of the single-family home. The suit alleged the coalition&rsquo;s opposition to the project didn&rsquo;t get a fair shake because city leaders held closed-door discussions and circulated confidential reports among city employees, which included council members&rsquo; notes and concerns on projects or appeals, ahead of a public hearing on the matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The coalition said there was a pattern of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pelosis-jan-6-team-plots-next-move-ahead-of-2022-midterms\/\" title=\"Pelosi\u2019s Jan. 6 Team Plots Next Move Ahead Of 2022 Midterms\">holding public hearings<\/a> in which the topics seemed to have already been discussed and voted on in private. Attorneys for the coalition found out about the disappearing messages during the discovery process of the lawsuit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers found an April 6, 2022, memo that advised city employees that in one-on-one messages, as well as in Google Chat messages, the conversation &ldquo;is not saved and will automatically delete after 24 hours.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/after-commuting-his-sentence-ca-gov-newsom-reverses-parole-for-convicted-double-murderer\/\" title=\"After Commuting His Sentence, CA Gov. Newsom Reverses Parole For Convicted Double Murderer\">public records request<\/a> from the news outlet produced 38 pages of messages from then-City Councilman Paul Krekorian&rsquo;s office and contained everything from lunch plans to city business, including the activities of Krekorian and Democratic Mayor Karen Bass.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Another records request produced documents showing that Krekorian&rsquo;s spokesman, Hugh Esten, discussed a &ldquo;nomination&rdquo; with Chelsea Lucktenberg, spokeswoman for Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, on Google Chat.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Karen Richardson, a spokeswoman for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto&rsquo;s office, said the office was &ldquo;gathering information and looking into our processes,&rdquo; though she added that the office does not comment on pending litigation. The city council was scheduled to confer with legal counsel about the case during a closed session on Dec. 11.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mark Kenyon, president of the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, said the city has an &ldquo;obligation&rdquo; to preserve its correspondence and is hoping the city council will stop the practice of discussing business via Google Chat.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We think the public has the right to know what its government is doing,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1888127\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1888127\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawsuit alleges LA employees use auto-deleting chats for business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2646,"featured_media":2383093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/LACityHall.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[47308,47307,4585,37708,12404],"class_list":["post-2383092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-auto-deleting-chats","tag-la-city-employees","tag-lawsuit","tag-public-records","tag-transparency"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/LACityHall.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2646"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2383092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2383096,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383092\/revisions\/2383096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2383092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2383092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2383092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}