"This seems like such an egregious practice," said Dean Schmidt, an attorney and task force member. "... none of them are making it to the public record. I mean that is a quantum violation, in my estimation, of public records laws."
"It means everything's been deleted," Schmidt continued, indicating not just a "negligent" approach or "carelessness," he said, but "willful" deletion. "Someone is saying to the rest of us: 'Screw you, I'm not going to show you any of my texts.'"
Mission Local first reported on the mayor's practice of deleting texts in mid-September, after the Sunshine task force heard of the practice at a hearing on Aug. 20. Mission Local spoke to half a dozen public records experts who said the practice likely violates California state law requiring retaining records for two years.
At the Wednesday hearing, the task force was ruling on a complaint brought forth by Hazel Williams, an activist and public records filer who regularly requests text messages from Breed. Williams had uncovered the text deletion practice after she requested the most recent texts from Breed - that is, any text message whatsoever dealing with city business.
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