"EXCLUSIVE: Bass Commish Using Hidden Email Accounts, Blocking Access to Public Records" by Daniel Guss
Larry Gross, a Garcetti holdover, used his housing non-profit's email to conceal, confirm to city officials scathing criticism of Bass, animal pound volunteers and critics. But there's more.
@TheGussReport - In the latest example of rules being ignored at every level of LA City Hall, Larry Gross, board president of the endlessly controversial LA Animal Services, LAAS, has been exclusively busted by this column using his unpublished and covert private work email to influence Mayor Karen Bass’s hiring decision for its next GM, and to confirm scathing criticism of the mayor as well as of LAAS critics and animal pound volunteers who Bass later applauded in her first State of the City address.
Gross, a Garcetti holdover who has served on the Board for nearly a decade, acknowledged in a media inquiry with this column last week that he uses publicly unknown and private email accounts to conduct city business, but repeatedly refused to identify which accounts, and that may be a violation of California Public Records Act, CPRA, guidelines.
“I am quite aware that any email address I use to communicate with city officials regarding my position as a Commissioner is subject to the Public Record Act. I fully support that and have no problem with that. I have nothing to hide,” Gross emailed this column in response to my questions.
Nothing to hide, it appears, other than identifying which private email accounts he uses for city business.
Gross’s refusal to identify those email accounts maliciously makes it impossible for the city to comply with additional public records requests by this column.
But unbeknownst to Gross, I was already in possession of emails he sent from one such account; his email account at the Coalition for Economic Survival, CES, a tenant’s advocacy group where he is Executive Director and CEO.
In March, Gross used his CES email account to forward to several city officials a scathing email about Bass and her vow to improve inhumane, if not illegal, conditions at LAAS. The email Gross forwarded was authored by Kristen Stavola, Executive Director of Rescues Rock, that she wrote to other city officials including Christopher Thompson, Bass’s chief of staff, in which she also describes LAAS critics and volunteers as “disgruntled” and as a “boisterous, disruptive group of malcontents.”
The gist of Stavola’s email manifesto was to get Bass to listen to Brenda Barnette, the last disastrous LAAS GM, and ostensibly to listen to Best Friends, with whom LAAS had a deadly and deceptive relationship, in Bass’s ongoing search for Barnette’s replacement. Barnette, ironically a dog breeder, retired in 2021, and is believed to be very close friends with Stavola.
Gross confirms, in one of his private emails to city officials, that Stavola’s description is “pretty accurate” and that “the LA Times has not been helpful” in its reporting on inhumane, if not illegal, conditions at LAAS.
In fact, of late, the Times’ reporting on cruel pound conditions and whistleblower retaliation was accurate, if not understated. I’ll have even more stunning information on this subject in the coming days.
While Gross is entitled to his opinions, as a city official, he isn’t entitled to hide his communications about city business or the means he uses to communicate them. In using his email account with the Coalition for Economic Survival to transmit official city communications, CES may be held legally accountable for CPRA laws.
As reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2017, “the California Supreme Court ruled today that when government officials conduct public business using private email or personal devices, those communications may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Record Acts (CPRA).”
Curiously, in response to my PRA, the city redacted one email in its entirety. It was this particular email that was the catalyst for my PRA. I have advised the city that if it continues to hide its content, it may face a legal fight for its release and an order to cover my legal expenses in that pursuit, as it was required to do last year.
Gross was always an odd choice for the LAAS Board, which is an unpaid role. While his qualifications seem ideal for - shocker! - tenant advocacy issues, he had little if any experience in humane affairs. While I tended to disagree with him on policy issues, I have, until recently, publicly supported his continuing in this role because of an open line of communication with him. That changed, though, when the City Attorney’s office recently overruled his efforts to censor me at a Board meeting, subsequently issuing a rare agreement to “cure and correct.” But with City Hall’s typical political hackery, it was sent to me just hours before its next meeting at that time and I wound-up unable to address the issue in question; censorship by default.
Bass and Stavola could not be reached for comment.
Look for Gross to be ousted soon, as there is more to come.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)