A public pay database is suing South Pasadena for failing to release records about its employee wages and benefits for more than 200 days, according to a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Transparent California publishes this information annually and collects it through records requests to nearly every public agency in the state, including, typically, South Pasadena. But starting last year, the city of about 25,000 repeatedly delayed providing figures for 2019, though it had routinely released the same information without issue since 2011.
The delays dragged on for 225 days and ended only about an hour after City Hall received the lawsuit Tuesday, according to Robert Fellner, executive director of Transparent California.
“It is just so clear they never spent five minutes on it until they were served with the lawsuit,” Fellner said.
In an email exchange, City Clerk Maria Ayala apologized to Fellner for the delays and acknowledged the information should have been released sooner. She attributed the city’s slow response to short staffing, a deluge of requests and the closure of City Hall from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This created a ‘perfect storm’ for requests, such as yours, to fall through the cracks,” she wrote to Fellner.
In a statement, interim City Manager Sean Joyce explained the city had a backlog of requests due to an extended staff vacancy in the clerk’s office. The city added two additional employees to the department earlier this week to “bolster the efforts of what had been just one individual for several months,” he said.
“We deeply regret the delay and have taken steps today to provide all of the information requested,” Joyce said.
Transparent California confirmed receipt of the records, but the figures provided left out additional compensation, such as overtime, according to Fellner. However, he expressed confidence that South Pasadena will provide the rest of the missing information and, in an email, Joyce confirmed that is the city’s intention.
Fellner pointed to the scenario as an example of the California Public Records Act’s lack of teeth. While the state law requires public agencies to respond to a request within 10 days, the timeline for turning over the actual records is more vaguely described as “promptly.”
If an agency doesn’t comply, the only enforcement mechanism is for the requester to file a lawsuit, much like Transparent California did. Members of the public tend to give up if their requests are ignored and often there’s no consequences for the public agency, Fellner said.
Transparent California sent multiple email reminders and fax messages over the last 225 days. They formally threatened to sue in December, according to Fellner. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 17, after it became clear the city would not otherwise comply, he said.
As a result of the lawsuit, South Pasadena will likely have to cover Transparent California’s legal costs. Fellner estimates that could range from $5,000 to $10,000.
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