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By Brian Hews
The city of Montebello and the City Clerk’s office is violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the California Public Records Act by deliberately withholding public documents requested by Hews Media Group-Community News.
The documents were requested June 16 and have yet to be received.
Under the FOIA, when a person requests documents from an agency, the agency has 10 days to respond with a 14 day extension after that, for a total of 24 calendar days.
Vanessa Delgado
HMG-CN requested the campaign finance documents, known as “460’s,” of Montebello Councilwoman Vanessa Delgado. The forms list all monetary donations and expenses of her campaign committee.
HMG-CN also asked for Delgado’s Statement of Economic Interest forms, known as “700’s.” Those forms are filed yearly and outline any salary or gifts the politician has received during the year.
The 700’s are designed to spot any conflict of interest between an elected official and a person or company.
HMG-CN has found no hesitation by other City Clerk’s, receiving documents very quickly from cities such as Commerce, Cerritos, Norwalk, Central Basin Water, and the Registrar Recorders office in Norwalk.
All fulfilled the request within a day and were able to email the documents.
HMG-CN made the request June 16, which required an extension letter June 26; nothing was received.
When it became clear that stall tactics were being used, HMG-CN sent an email to Deputy City Clerk Lillian Guzman July 10, 23 days after the request.
HMG-CN also called the clerk’s office and talked to Tamara Arzumanyan who indicated she would “get the documents immediately.”
Later Guzman sent an email from [email protected] indicating the “attached response was sent to you on June 28.”
Yet nothing was received by HMG-CN on that date.
The [email protected] is the same email that HMG-CN has been sending and receiving requests for years without problems.
Later, Guzman once again sent an email asking if HMG-CN received the documents, but once again nothing was attached to the email.
Finally, Guzman said in an email, “apparently attachments are not received by you, please advise.”
HMG-CN immediately requested that Ms. Guzman send the attachments to an alternate G-mail account, [email protected]
Once again no documents have been received.
HMG-CN was forced to contact its attorney who sent a demand letter to Montebello City Attorney Arnold Glassman who immediately forwarded that to Guzman.
As of today no documents have been received.
It is unclear why the City Clerk’s office is withholding the Delgado documents and violating the FOIA.
HMG-CN will update when available.
How about looking into Delgado’s years as a Planning Commissioner in Pico Rivera when she was the squeeze of former married Pico Rivera Councilman Carlos Garcia? Garcia put this then-hottie up in one of his love-shack condo’s on Rosemead Blvd. She literally worked her way up from the bottom, that being her knees.