As you may recall, last November, due to their refusal to even so much as respond to my requests for material under the California Public Records Act, I was forced to file a writ petition against the Greater Leimert Park Village Business Improvment District.1 I haven’t written much about it since because it’s mostly been stalling and negotiation. However, I am pleased to announce that the other day we finally settled the damn thing!
They have agreed to pay my lawyer, the incomparable Anna von Herrmann, $9,000 for her time and also to produce the records. As importantly, they’ve agreed to produce the emails I asked for in EML format.2 At first the BID wanted to include a freaking nondisparagement clause and a nondisclosure clause in the agreement, but I refused and they didn’t insist. After all, disclosure and disparagement are two of the four pillars on which this blog stands!3
Get a copy of the settlement agreement here, watch for the publication of the emails when they come in, and get ready for a steady stream of information about this rapidly gentrifying area and the BID’s involvement in the processes that that entails.
- As of this writing their hosting account is suspended, but I’m linking to it anyway as I assume it will not always be so. They’re under a lot of pressure right now as their first attempt at renewing in 2018 seems to have stalled out and they had to be established from scratch. I don’t know the details because of their refusal to comply with the CPRA but I will be studying the matter in the future now that they’ve agreed to comply with the law.
- This is required by the CPRA but is widely resisted by public agencies even though it would be easier for them, probably because they know I want it and they believe they can get away without doing it.
- The third pillar is “never tell all you know.”
