With a proposed ballot measure seeking to bring significant new power to city hall on the ballot next week, city officials are ramping up internal security by considering giving its police chief the power to terminate employees if they “leak” information.
The potentially new leak termination policy were among the items discussed by the Council at its latest meeting on Oct. 21
Citing unspecified security concerns, City Manager Chet Simmons asked the city’s police chief to explain an evolving policy that apparently, could result in termination of employees.
“We’ve had some questions about security that have come up recently,” said Simmons, “that I think would be best suited to be addressed by the Chief.
According to Los Al Police Chief Michael Claborn, “we are going to be ensuring that employees of the city are exercising a sense of confidentiality as it pertains to information that is contained within the city’s databases.”
“And in that process, if we were able, if we were to find out that employees fail to protect confidential information, then they would then be subject to discipline up to and including termination,” the police chief said.
While most of the information dealt with city employees is public information, it was not immediately clear about which “confidential data” that was, or could potentially be “leaked” that can get employees fired.
City officials have been struggling with controlling the debate about its own internal financial information, with two members of the Council consistently pointing out inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and questions about data.
In addition, the city’s new council handbook apparently contains new limits on public data requests that have caused bottlenecks and outright rejection of timely handing over some public data to Council members.
Requests for invoices by Council members have resulted in new policies at city hall that require Council members to go into city hall, literally view documents in hand, not allowed to ask questions, make copies or other records.
Other information, related to the controversial Lampson Project, has also become somewhat of an issue as the process to approve the massive housing project ramps back up.
In other action, Parkwood resident Christine Arfwedson took issue with a Facebook post made by Council member Tanya Doby thanking a consultant with one of the developers involved in the Lampson Place housing project for helping her with her campaign.
“She said in the post, Doby thanked John Gabbard, for helping her campaign, knocking on doors with her for her re-election,” said Arfwedson.
“Why is this a problem,” Arfwedson asked?
She said Gabbard is a consultant for one of the developers involved in the controversial Lampson Place Project, which creates for Doby a conflict of interest.
“This is a direct conflict of interest,” she told Council. “Accepting help from a consultant from a company that will have business directly in front of this council, that is a problem,” she said.
“Miss Doby, you need to recuse yourself from any votes or decisions regarding the Lampson Project,” she said during the Council’s oral communication period.
Gabbard is also an elected Council member from the City of Dana Point, records show.
Arfwedson also expressed disapproval of the city’s proposed Measure X ballot proposal.
“My next concern is about measure X,” she said. “This is a measure designed to disguise in positive language different topics of the in the measure that are in no way help to this city. First expanding term limits, possibly deciding that the 12 years starts now, which would get some of the members on the council up to 24 years of being a council member,” said Arfwedson.
She suggested the measure was a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing to cede more power to city bureaucrats.
“Measure X is draped in positive gobbledygook terms to disguise what it really is. And I say to you, city council to give up oversight of projects you might as well recuse yourself for your duties.”
Finally, John Underwood, a longtime area journalist and a producer for the local Los Alamitos Television station, questioned the Council about why the administration took over control at the start of this campaign season.
“It’s a very rare occasion when I come before you in front of these cameras and at this podium, I would much rather be behind the camera promoting and representing this community, its culture and its best face forward,” began Underwood.
“But tonight, I have occasion to express my dismay and my disappointment that staff and the city has determined that Los al TV shall be put on a production freeze, and that only repetitive programming from months ago will be aired on the channel of which I have been monitoring consistently for the last several months,” he said.
According to Underwood, the station has consistently aired the same meeting from months ago, in which a consultant revealed a community survey that was favorable to the city.
Underwood said later in the week, after his appearance at the Council, it looks like city officials have finally begun to update programming.
“I have tried, on many occasions, to get different programs on the air, even as simple as our much-utilized community calendar, which local community stakeholders have utilized over the years, on many, many occasions, we have built that bridge with the community,” he said.
It’s taken years to do so there is a feedback loop there in which we are supported in return, even that has been frozen, and that’s staff’s own word, Los Al TV has been frozen out of event calendar production, current production, and of this all-important election cycle that Los al TV has been part of since its inception in 1984,” said Underwood.
“I’m simply here to say that, yes, there may be as it was, as it was described by staff, a freeze, a programming freeze on Los al TV for the purpose of broader transition and review process. That’s fine. Review process is fine. But do we need to darken our long standing tv operation and restrict the community from current information and access to it to do what is basically an administrative process,” he questioned?
“We’ve never had this occasion before and throughout Los Al TV’s history, we’ve always been there to present in an even and unbiased way, interviews, candidate forums. There are candidate forums out there now that are waiting to go on the production platform of Los al TV, that have been precluded from doing so in this election cycle,” he said.
“But beyond that, even access to events as benign as Dios de los Muertos for St. Isidore, or events from American Legion, 716, or I could go on and on, naming organizations that have, over time, utilized to great advantage los al TV. What we’re talking about here is not just an internal administrative process.
“You’re talking about ending a process that is the public interest and should supersede whatever administrative process may be legitimately at hand and may be quite necessary,” said Underwood.
“I don’t feel we need to darken Los Al TV to do it in this very critical time,” he added.
“Please, I urge staff, and I urge the council to consider expediting the return of La Salle TV to proper current operational footing and do so before this election cycle has been expended.”