Beachcombing

Question: How can you tell if a City Hall spokesperson is lying? Answer: Their lips are moving.

That used to be the standard joke for politicians but now it applies to the disinformation specialists in local government. Every single action on their part is prefaced with the question “Will we get sued,” which often dictates whether their response is truthful.

Check out Gerrie Schipske’s CityWatch column on page four concerning the California Public Records Act. The PRA in Long Beach is a joke, often explaining why local reporters must seek alternate sources of information.

Last year I made two public records requests. One was for a list of the restaurants allowed to have outside parklets and the other was for an updated PDF version of the city telephone directory, which we’ve referenced for many years..

Public Works promptly responded that they did not have a list of the parklets in Long Beach. Very amusing, since that was one of their main responsibilities during COVID-19. They also maintain our pristine (snicker) city streets!

On May 31, 2023 I received via email the PDF version of the phone directory, originally requested of the inept PR flacks on June 17, 2022.

When I shared my 50-week delayed response with Gerrie Schipske, she astutely noted that dragged-out responses give the appearance that the city is trying to withhold information. “Taking 50 weeks violates the law: Calif. Gov’t Code § 6253(c) Each agency, upon a request for a copy of records, shall, within 10 days from receipt of the request, determine whether the request, in whole or in part, seeks copies of disclosable public records in the possession of the agency and shall promptly notify the person making the request of the determination and the reasons therefor.

“In unusual circumstances, the time limit prescribed in this section may be extended by written notice by the head of the agency or their designee to the person making the request, setting forth the reasons for the extension and the date on which a determination is expected to be dispatched. No notice shall specify a date that would result in an extension of more than 14 days. When the agency dispatches the determination, and if the agency determines that the request seeks disclosable public records, the agency shall state the estimated date and time when the records will be made available.”

Thomas Jefferson is often misquoted as saying “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” My variation says that any government devoid of honesty, transparency and integrity should be dissolved. The Beachcomber has seen a large amount of obfuscation and stonewalling in recent years coming from City Hall. Ergo, there is zero trust of their PR clowns.

We could, time permitting, take the fight to the First Amendment Coalition for investigation and prosecution. Instead, we simply treat almost everything coming from City Hall propogandists as “bovine scatology,” borrowing from the very concise words of General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War, to describe “bullshit.”

One Beachcomber reader calls it “Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy): A system of government where the least capable to lead, are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.”

Funny stuff:

• According to a recent survey, men say that the first thing they notice about a woman are their eyes. And women say that the first thing they notice about men is that they’re a bunch of liars.
• Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200 and a substantial tax cut saves you 30 cents?
• Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

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