Google Chat messages are automatically deleted after 24 hours. 

The inquiry into their use came during a 2023 dispute between the city and the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, which stumbled on the disappearing messages after the city approved the construction of a home in Mount Washington. The safety coalition was against it.

City officials admitted that employees were given the option of communicating with people, both internally and externally, through the use of the auto-deleted messages. They refused to explain why this practice was allowed or how it complies with the state public records law that demands most records be preserved for at least two years, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

“The City of L.A. has a history of corruption and self-dealing, and this allows a platform for those deals to be facilitated without fear that anyone will find the evidence, because the chats are deleted within 24 hours,” said Jamie T. Hall, an attorney representing the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition. “The Public Records Act exists in order to ensure that there’s openness and transparency, and when records are deleted purposefully, it undermines democracy and facilitates corruption.”

The coalition challenged the city’s approval of the single-family home. The suit alleged the coalition’s opposition to the project didn’t get a fair shake because city leaders held closed-door discussions and circulated confidential reports among city employees, which included council members’ notes and concerns on projects or appeals, ahead of a public hearing on the matter. 

The coalition said there was a pattern of holding public hearings in which the topics seemed to have already been discussed and voted on in private. Attorneys for the coalition found out about the disappearing messages during the discovery process of the lawsuit. 

Lawyers found an April 6, 2022, memo that advised city employees that in one-on-one messages, as well as in Google Chat messages, the conversation “is not saved and will automatically delete after 24 hours.”

One public records request from the news outlet produced 38 pages of messages from then-City Councilman Paul Krekorian’s office and contained everything from lunch plans to city business, including the activities of Krekorian and Democratic Mayor Karen Bass. 

Another records request produced documents showing that Krekorian’s spokesman, Hugh Esten, discussed a “nomination” with Chelsea Lucktenberg, spokeswoman for Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, on Google Chat. 

Karen Richardson, a spokeswoman for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office, said the office was “gathering information and looking into our processes,” though she added that the office does not comment on pending litigation. The city council was scheduled to confer with legal counsel about the case during a closed session on Dec. 11.

Mark Kenyon, president of the Crane Boulevard Safety Coalition, said the city has an “obligation” to preserve its correspondence and is hoping the city council will stop the practice of discussing business via Google Chat.  

“We think the public has the right to know what its government is doing,” he said.