Google Chat messages are automatically deleted after 24 hours.

The investigation into their use came during a 2023 dispute between the city and the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, which stumbled upon the messages disappearing after the city approved construction of a house in Mount Washington. The security coalition was against it.

City officials admitted that employees had been given the opportunity to communicate with people, both internally and externally, through the use of automatically deleted messages. They declined to explain why the practice was allowed or how it complied with the state’s public records law that requires most records to be retained for at least two years. Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

“The city of Los Angeles has a history of corruption and self-dealing, which makes it possible to create a platform for these transactions without fear of anyone finding the evidence because threads are deleted within 24 hours,” Jamie said T.Hall. , an attorney representing the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition. “The Public Records Act exists to ensure openness and transparency, and when records are deliberately suppressed, it undermines democracy and facilitates corruption. »

The coalition challenged the city’s approval of the single-family home. The suit alleges that the coalition’s opposition to the project was not fairly addressed because city leaders held closed-door discussions and distributed confidential reports among city employees, which included notes and concerns of council members on projects or appeals, before a public hearing. on the question.

The coalition said there was a pattern of holding public hearings in which topics appeared to have already been discussed and voted on in private. Coalition lawyers discovered the missing messages during the pretrial discovery process.

Lawyers found an April 6, 2022 memo informing city employees that in individual messages, as well as Google Chat messages, the conversation “is not recorded and will be automatically deleted after 24 hours.”

A public records request from the news outlet produced 38 pages of messages from then-Councilman Paul Krekorian’s office and contained everything from lunch plans to city business, including the activities of Krekorian and the mayor Democrat Karen Bass.

Another records request produced documents showing that Krekorian spokesperson Hugh Esten discussed an “appointment” with Chelsea Lucktenberg, a spokesperson for City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, over Google Chat.

Karen Richardson, a spokeswoman for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office, said the office is “gathering information and reviewing our processes,” although she added that the office does not comment on pending litigation. The city council was scheduled to speak with legal counsel about the matter during a closed session on Dec. 11.

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Mark Kenyon, president of the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, said the city has an “obligation” to preserve its correspondence and hopes the city council will end the practice of discussing business via Google Chat.

“We believe the public has the right to know what their government is doing,” he said.