Wednesday, March 25, 2015

City Attorney Withholds Campos' Housing Moratorium Emails

On Feb. 12, Supervisor David Campos began running his mouth about potentially drafting legislation that might enact a market rate housing construction moratorium in select areas of the Mission. It was his typical method of releasing a (lead) trial balloon with no text of a new law to examine and no timeline of when he possibly take concrete steps to back up his words.


The moratorium was one subject of my public records request this week to the City Attorney Dennis Herrera, which generated this response explaining the withholding of govt documents:

"This email is in response to your Immediate Disclosure Request, which our Office received on March 23, 2015. In your IDR, you seek: 

"[C]opies of any and all emails sent to or received from Supervisor David Campos or anyone in his office to anyone in the City Attorney's Office related in any fashion to a market rate housing moratorium, condo development or affordable housing either in the Mission District or Citywide, from October 1, 2014 through March 22, 2015."   

"Our Office has now completed a search for records falling within the scope of your request.  After reviewing the records, we have determined that all email messages responsive to your request are exempt from disclosure under the Sunshine Ordinance and Public Records Act because they contain privileged attorney-client communications and/or constitute protected attorney work product. [...]" 

Of course, if Campos were a transparent and accountable legislator, we'd have a few real clues about if and when he's going to move on the moratorium idea, six weeks after he first broached it.

How many more low income folks have to be evicted or displaced, and new luxury condos and market rate apartments, and community crisis meetings held, before Campos either shows us his draft legislation or drops the idea?

No comments: