Malibu Council To Debate Transparency

MALIBU, CA — Tempers are likely to run high at Monday night's Malibu Council meeting. In addition to debating an ethics reform proposal co-sponsored by new Councilmembers Bruce Silverstein and Steve Uhring, the Council will also debate two recent additions to the City Council Agenda focused on councilmembers' ability to request information from city staff.

City Manager Reva Feldman prepared a report asking for the Council to "provide guidance on the amount of time per week that the City Manager should prioritize on requests from one Councilmember." Feldman refers to specifically to Silverstein, whom she says is taking up inordinate amounts of staff time with immediate demands for information requests. According to Feldman, Silverstein has made 26 Public Records Act information requests that total more than 5,000 pages, and sent over 100 emails. Feldman said that she is spending 20 hours a week responding to Silverstein's requests, and with reduced staff, the City Clerk and City Manager are having difficulty completing other "high priority Work Plan assignments."

Feldman said that Silverstein has requested a great deal of additional information. She attached copies of Silverstein's many emails, which ask, in an often abrupt tone, for time records of her work over the past nine months, copies of her telephone logs, records privileged communications between the City Manager and any member of the city council and attorneys representing the city, and much more.

Silverstein released a statement calling Feldman's agenda report "nothing less than a childish temper tantrum from a dishonest and duplicitous public servant who refuses to stay in her lane in Malibu's City Government" and a "conglomeration of misrepresentations and material omissions."

According to Silverstein, he was within his rights as a citizen and councilmember to request all of that information, pursuant to the California Public Records Act. He also argued that the City Council does not have the right to provide guidance on the number of CPRA requests a city receives, since it is obligated to respond to all of them.

Silverstein asserted that Feldman's claim that he requested 5,000 pages is inaccurate, alleging that Feldman ordered the city clerk to produce thousands of pages he did not ask for in what he deemed a "document dump" designed to overwhelm him.

Silverstein also said that his requests are taking up so much time because he feels Feldman has deliberately made moves not to streamline the process and has spent "an ordinate amount of time sparring with me and devising ways to evade and avoid producing what I have requested."

Feldman noted that Silverstein has refused to meet with her unless their meetings are recorded, a request she has denied. Silverstein also filed a 121-page complaint, complete with attachments of email conversations against Feldman to the city's human resources manager. He alleged that she has refused to answer his questions to his satisfaction, and deliberately undermined him in favor of other councilmembers.

Another item on the topic seemingly designed to curtail Silverstein's ability to request information was sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Paul Grisanti, who was nominated for the position after Mayor Mikke Pierson and Councilmember Karen Farrer declined to nominate Silverstein, despite his receiving the most votes in the November election.

Grisanti's agenda report proposes changes to existing city policies regarding council/staff relationships. It would amend Policy #8 to require that councilmembers request information from the city manager, rather than from department heads. The city manager would be required to provide information in a "timely manner as long as the request for information shall take less than one hour of work to respond." Requests for information requiring more than an hour of work would need to be approved by a majority of the City Council.

City commissioners would be able to request information from department heads, but requests for information that would take more than an hour of work would need to be approved by the City Manager.

The proposal also adds the following line, likely added due to the often brusque tone of Silverstein's emails: "The City Council and Members of City Commissions shall speak to and correspond with the City Manager, the City Attorney and City staff in a professional and cordial manner at all times."

In a response few would call cordial, Silverstein wrote in a Patch neighbor post: "The City Manager is using newly elected “Mayor Pro Tem” (who was unlawfully elected to that position, as will be explained at the City Council Meeting on January 11) to serve as her proxy to force through a proposal to cut off the rights of City Councilmembers to obtain non-public information about the City Government unless and until they can obtain approval at a City Council meeting from a majority of the City Councilmembers. The City Manager’s Anti-Transparency, Unaccountability, and Unethical Proposal is an anathema to democratic government and should, in and of itself, provide a basis for removing her from her position as City Manager. And, if City Councilmember Grisanti truly developed this anti-democratic on his own, he deserves the ire of the community."

Silverstein asked Feldman for a record of communications between her and Grisanti, hoping to gauge how much input she had in crafting the item. Feldman sent an email confirming that she helped revise the document, and replied:

"Councilmember Grisanti asked for a council item to be placed on the agenda regarding Policy #8 in November. He and I have spoken about it multiple times since then. 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."