My colleague, Will Carless, isn’t the only reporter here who’s struggling to get public records from one of the city’s redevelopment agencies.
I’ve had a request for records pending with the Centre City Development Corp. since July 25. I want every e-mail that former CCDC President Nancy Graham sent after questions began being raised about her potential conflict-of-interest.
From an earlier post:
I filed a California Public Records Act request the day after Graham resigned, hoping to find out. I asked for every e-mail Graham sent or received after April 1. CCDC provided some of Graham’s e-mails on Sept. 11. The 2,893 messages included her spam, campaign donation solicitations and e-mails with subjects like “Southern California Payroll Focus Day 2008.”
Hardly a word was included about her involvement in the $409-million condominium and hotel project proposed at 7th Avenue and Market Street downtown. Graham received money from an affiliate of the project’s developer at the same time she was involved in negotiations at CCDC, a revelation that led to misdemeanor charges and CCDC’s termination of the project.
CCDC’s attorneys promised more e-mails were coming. But then the law firm working on my request resigned. The new law firm, Kane Ballmer Berkman, which has also represented the Southeastern Economic Development Corp., promptly denied two of my records requests that were pending.
My complaints and others led CCDC Chairman Fred Maas to acknowledge the agency hadn’t been as responsive as it should be. At a Sept. 24 CCDC meeting, Maas told the agency’s attorneys to be more responsive. He told them to err on the side of transparency. They promised they would.
In the two weeks since then, I’ve not heard a single word from the attorneys, Gus Lamanna and Murray Kane. I talked to CCDC spokesman Derek Danziger on Monday; he promised Lamanna would call Monday or Tuesday. He didn’t. I left a message for Lamanna yesterday. No word.
I’ve just left another message. No word yet.