Are Protests and the Movement to Recall Mayor Garcia Cracking City Hall Transparency?
Stephen Downing
The Beachcomber has obtained an internal memo written by City Manager Tom Modica to Mayor Robert Garcia and members of the City Council alerting them that “City leadership has directed the city attorney’s office” to seek to have a protective order related to the Phase Four report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) lifted.
The protective order Modica referenced was the subject of a June 6 Beachcomber article related to the City Council directing the city manager to take a “fresh look” at the effectiveness of the Citizen Police Complaint Commission (CPCC).
In that article it was stated if the City Council “really wants a jump-start on getting to the bottom of the LBPD’s inadequacies, they have a ready-made study sitting in the wings.” https://beachcomber.news/content/what-are-cops-city-manager-and-city-att...
The article further reported that the IACP report is “a deep dive objective study by policing experts from the IACP that identifies the needs, concerns and practices that impedes organizational effectiveness within the police department and provides governing body officials and police command staff with a prescriptive series of actionable measures to effect meaningful organizational change.”
In February 2019 the city cancelled the IACP contract just prior to formal issuance of the Phase Four report, which was to be distributed to the public – per the contract.
In the July 6 memo Modica continued to deny that the city improperly withheld the report and repeated the position given the Beachcomber last month by City Attorney Charles Parkin that a “courtesy” copy of the IACP report given the city – and recently discovered by the Beachcomber to be in possession of the city attorney – was under a protective order issued by the federal court.
At that time Parkin’s representative was informed that Beachcomber counsel Thomas Beck considered the city attorney opinion to be defective in that: “The protective order does not consider the city, even as a defendant, in the Williams case, a protected party. The benefits and burdens (of the protective order) fall to Williams and his attorney and the IACP and its attorney.”
In the memo obtained by the Beachcomber, Modica maintains that “the city is bound by the protective order and cannot release the report until it is lifted” but acknowledged that “given recent events and the city’s ongoing commitment to be fully transparent, but still comply with the law, city leadership has directed the city attorney’s office to seek to have the protective order lifted – or to otherwise reach agreement with the necessary parties to authorize release of the draft report – as soon as possible.”
The memo did not state who in “city leadership” gave the order or who in city leadership, other than the City Council, has the authority to direct the city attorney to take the actions outlined.
After hours calls to City Hall were not answered.
Beachcomber sources report that this action taken by city leadership is aimed at abating the current movement to recall Mayor Garcia.
This is an on-going story and updates will be provided as the city moves forward – or not – with the action items described by the city manager as well as the status of the movement to recall Mayor Robert Garcia.
Stephen Downing is a resident of Long Beach and a retired LAPD deputy chief of police.
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Comments
First the corrupt city with the help of the city attorneys office deny a report exist, then they say it cant be released due to legal reasons. How is this lying and corrupt behavior acceptable from the city department that is suppose to help keep the city employees and police department inline. I guess this is why the police and city council is so corrupt. We the tax payer paid for this report and NO one in the the city should be able to hide it from us. If the Mayor really wants transparency and really want police reform then why cant we see what we paid for? What is in this report that they want to hide so bad? We need to recall these corrupt people, why are we allowing this corruption in OUR city. SMH
It is of upmost importance for Garcia to squash any recall effort. Recalls are difficult to spin and provide significant fodder for election opponents. Even if a recall is unsuccessful, the effort would be a significant blemish on Garcia's personal record if he attempts to be elected to higher office, which he surely will.
American history books are filled with stories of CORRUPT political officials who have perfected the black art of FAILING UPWARD! To that end I’ll bet Chief Garcia has studied the Trump playbook religiously, especially the chapters on lying, surrounding yourself with promoted lackeys, and absolutely reneging on every value and principle you swore to uphold…the question is how good a student is he and which way is he heading? Only the voters of Long Beach hold the answer.
Re: City management's agendizing memo acknowledges that action on the "Safe Streets" plan isn't time critical, meaning the Council could refer the issue to a Committee or invite public outreach...or simply approve it.
https://www.lbreport.com/news/jul20/roaddiet.htm
AGENDA ITEM 25
Here are two links to directly access online and live phone commentary (respectively) at the July 14 Council Meeting:
https://longbeach.granicusideas.com/meetings/3202-city-council/agenda_it...
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=wxE_MWhCak-NO8fmUBg-...
I have no social media accounts so if you do and this seems worthy of posting there, have at it.
I do not necessarily care for Mayor Garcia, but I know nothing about this Sims person except that he is some kind of community activist, has Black Lives Matter on his website, and is saying that our police are corrupt and racist. WHEN AND WHERE??? Give proof.
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