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Mayor Karen Bass and her staffers have reportedly been communicating using disappearing messages, a potential flagrant violation of rules on the books requiring record retention.
Bass’ press office allegedly uses WhatsApp messages that auto-delete every 24 hours, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
The practice calls into question how much transparency there is into her administration as Bass oversaw the city’s handling of multiple crises from the devastating Palisades fire to the more recent Boyle Heights warehouse burning.
City code requires records to be retained for at least two years.
The use of auto-deleting messages could shield the press office from public records requests. The mayor’s office declined comment on the disappearing messages.
Bass’ media team has come under recent scrutiny for keeping former spokesperson Yusef Robb on multiple WhatsApp group channels even though he is now employed by the same Boyle Heights warehouse company, the LA Material reported.
Robb reportedly was still an informal advisor for Bass, sparking conflict-of-interest concerns.
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The mayor herself has come under past scrutiny for using disappearing messages. Media outlets in the aftermath of the Palisades fire filed records requests for messages Bass’ texts. But her counsel had told the Times that the mayor’s phone “is set not to save text messages, and there is ‘no requirement that a city official or employee’ do so.”
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The counsel even argued that text messages are “ephemeral types of electronic communication” not subject to retention requirements, though messages were eventually recovered and released.
After the city got sued for the deletions, its attorneys still claimed it was impractical to keep messages for two years.
“The Times’ proposed rule requires a degree of intrusion into City employees’ personal sphere that is, at the very least, offensive if not violative of California and federal constitutional rights,” wrote Reuben Camper Cahn, an attorney for the city.
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