Silverstein sharpens attack on Malibu city manager
Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter 2:15 pm PST January 7, 2021 Malibu Surfside News
Newly-seated Malibu City Council member Bruce Silverstein is accusing City Manager Reva Feldman of preventing him from obtaining information he has requested for the past several months in what he says is an effort to “conceal evidence of malfeasance and wrongdoing.”
His accusations come ahead of a City Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday via Zoom, where council members have dueling agenda items seeking either to limit or expand information rights, depending on who you ask.
Silverstein claims Item 7.D on the Jan. 11 agenda was prepared by Feldman for submission by Mayor Pro Tem Paul Grisanti “to curtail existing information rights” of council members “to facilitate the city manager’s concealment of her secretive and clandestine activities.”
Those activities, according to Silverstein, may also have bearing on former council member Jefferson Wagner’s “sworn allegations of criminality, corruption, and other wrongdoing.”
Item 7.D on the Jan. 11 agenda seeks to amend council Policy No. 8 regarding council relationship to city staff.
One proposed policy amendment states that “requests for information from council members shall be made to the city manager, provided that the information is readily available and can be secured without having to spend considerable time fulfilling the request. One hour is the guideline which will be used so as not to disrupt existing assigned work.”
The amendment states that if a response to a council member request exceeds one hour of work, it must be approved by the majority of the council at a meeting. Responses to city commissioner requests that exceed one hour of work shall be determined by the city manager.
Another amendment states that City Council and commission members “shall speak to and correspond with the city manager, the city attorney and city staff in a professional and cordial manner at all times.”
Silverstein said that if the council were to adopt Item 7.D, “the consequence would be to deny me access to the information I have requested if it had not already been produced.”
Upon learning about the item on the agenda, Silverstein withdrew his consent to the city manager taking her time to produce the information he requested and demanded it be produced before Monday’s meeting.
In an email to Silverstein dated Jan. 6, Feldman wrote that she previously emailed him about his request and assured him that staff was working on compiling documents.
“You have asked for thousands of documents, which takes time to assemble,” Feldman wrote. “For any further requests, I will need to get the consent of the City Council before additional resources are diverted to address your continual voluminous requests.”
“Until the City Council decides otherwise, my time is committed to satisfying the tasks assigned to me through the city’s adopted work plan for Fiscal Year 2020-21.”
Feldman wrote that several items Silverstein requested “are no longer in the possession of the city.”
Two days earlier, Feldman said that Grisanti made a request to amend the policy back in November 2020. That’s the month he, Silverstein and Steve Uhring were elected to the council. The vote was not certified until later.
“(Grisanti) and I have spoken about it multiple times since then,” Feldman wrote. “I suggest you discuss it with him in public during the council meeting on January 11 if you would like more information about what he is trying to accomplish.”
Silverstein said Feldman speaking with a Grisanti in a “clandestine manner” and also before his swearing in is precisely why some of the proposals are included in a new policy that Silverstein authored with Uhring.
The policy will be considered under Item 7.F on the council agenda.
Called the Transparency, Accountability, and Ethics Policy, it seeks to amend Policy No. 8 to provide council members unconstrained inspection and information rights. In addition, it also provides council control over the council agenda; schedules semi-annual performance evaluation of the city manager and lets the council decide whether the evaluation is conducted in public versus closed session; establishes a document retention policy; considers reforms to the City Council meeting process that are inviting to and respectful of residents; and considers other possible initiatives for
government reform.
The policy also creates a special independent investigation subcommittee to investigate the allegations in the affidavit by Wagner.
In December, Wagner announced he had executed an affidavit describing alleged evidence of criminal activity and potential corruption at City Hall.
Grisanti told Surfside News the policy item he’s proposing is an enhancement of what has already been in place since around 1998. It has never applied before to the various commissioners, so he wanted that aspect changed, as well as bringing back a sense of decorum to City Hall.
Grisanti said he hasn’t responded to certain items on social media or in the media because the Brown Act, as he interprets it, prohibits three or more council members from discussing items prior to when they vote on them in a public meeting.
“I look forward to responding in detail after the meeting on Monday,” Grisanti said.