Council limits time city staff can spend on pols’ document requests

Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter – 5:08 pm PST January 12, 2021 – Malibu Surfside News

In a slap against what they call newly-elected Councilman Bruce Silverstein’s spate of public records demands, the majority of the Malibu City Council early Tuesday voted to limit the time city staff can respond to such requests.

The council voted 3-2, with Silverstein and Steve Uhring opposing, to approve a motion by Councilwoman Karen Farrer to require the entire staff to spend just one hour total per week, per council member request, on items not on the city’s work plan.

The vote came shortly before 1 a.m. after a heated six-hour meeting, where at least six agenda items dealing with issues of homelessness, as well as transparency at City Hall, were postponed until a future meeting.

The agenda item that did get discussed was added one business day earlier by City Manager Reva Feldman addressing numerous recent requests by Silverstein, who, Feldman Sid, has “demanded immediate responses to a considerable amount of work” outside of the city’s adopted Fiscal Year 2020-21 work plan.

Feldman said she is completely bogged down with public records requests, which she is mandated by law to answer. She said in one instance, Silverstein wanted everything she has done for the past two years, a request she said has taken seven hours of her time as well as staff time to help to compile.

“I’m happy to produce any document at any time. I have absolutely nothing to hide, but I do work at the direction of the City Council,” Feldman said. “So, when any council member asks me for things the council hasn’t asked or authorized or directed me to do, I will always say no.”

Silverstein said council members haven’t seen all the correspondence between him and Feldman, noting he started off by nicely requesting very few pertinent emails and for staff to take as long as needed.

He said Feldman instead had city staff send unwanted junk mail instead of the things he actually requested.

“There is no need to produce hundreds, if not thousands of documents I did not request, especially if your purpose is to try to falsely demonstrate that my requests are overbroad,” Silverstein said. “I was stonewalled and given non-responsive answers repetitively.”

Among the documents Silverstein is seeking are the city manager’s phone logs which, he said, “don’t take any time to collect.”

“They’re not a burden on staff. They’re just something the city manager doesn’t want me to have. I’m hoping when I see these things, it will be meaningless … (However), when someone puts in so much effort to avoid scrutiny, it makes me suspicious and I think it makes the resident’s suspicious” Silverstein said.

In response to his tone being harassing, Silverstein said, “Once you escalate like she’s doing, I have to escalate in response to get what I’m entitled to.”

“Producing my phone records, unless the council asks me to do that, I don’t feel that’s something that’s appropriate to provide,” Feldman responded. “But if we can start with one hour per council member per week for items not on the work plan, that would be a good start, and if we feel that’s not working, we can always revisit it.”

Some people who spoke on the item didn’t understand why Silverstein was asking for

certain records.

“It’s a witch hunt,” said Colleen Baum, adding that city staff doesn’t have unlimited hours a day to devote to Silverstein’s “vendetta.”

Others said council members should have access to information whenever they like for whatever reason.

“I think that if more time was spent getting the documents and information that’s requested rather than fighting and trying to block it, it wouldn’t be such a big deal,” said Joseph Patterson. “We do want transparency in our city, and I think as citizens, we have the right and our City Council members we elected have a right to work on our behalf.”

Mayor Mikke Pierson said he’s all for full transparency and that there should be a special investigation with certain allegations, but he felt that Silverstein’s haste to get information is overwhelming.

“We have to find the right balance so staff can work on (the city’s) work plan because it’s hurting Malibu,” Pierson said. “I think you’re entitled to all the documents you want, but we have to find a pace.

Farrer had harsher words for Silverstein, calling out his tone and volume of communication to Feldman, saying he’s wasting taxpayer resources on demands that are monopolizing staff time and “crippling” City Hall.

“This is a fishing expedition, and it’s a witch hunt, and you know it,” Farrer said. “You seem to be creating a situation, Bruce, that is un-satisfiable. I don’t know when or

where your requests will be satisfied, if ever. That’s why I’m suggesting one hour.”

Uhring said Silverstein is entitled to the information, but there needs to be a balance with staff time. He said staff should limit their response specific to those requests.

“But limiting this stuff to one hour is a very, very bad message to the community,” Uhring said.

After their decision, the council unanimously agreed to move other agenda items to a future special meeting, including one by Silverstein and Uhring addressing overnight parking on PCH and another the pair co-authored regarding instilling transparency, accountability and ethics in Malibu city government.

Also postponed was an agenda item by Paul Grisanti amending Council Policy 8 regarding communication between elected officials and staff.

Grisanti told the Malibu Surfside News after the meeting that the agenda item was his idea before the election because he believes Malibu has a problem with commissioners as well council members treating city staff improperly, and that needs to be addressed.

“We have a pre-existing policy that supports that all communication be cordial,” he said.

Also after the meeting, Silverstein forwarded to the Malibu Surfside News an email he sent to Feldman “requesting the prompt production of the telephone bills within the possession or control of the city that reflect the time, duration and telephone number of all calls and text messages from any device she has used in the past year.”

Silverstein also requested that he be given “all documents that are withheld from all requests made by members of the public pursuant to the California Public Records Act over the course of the next 30 days.”

Silverstein said these are “the sole and exclusive information” he’s requesting in his capacity as a council member.

“I am confident that these requests will not impose a burden on the city staff and will not require the expenditure of more than an hour of time,” Silverstein wrote to Feldman.