Countdown To Forever Tax

Timeline

This post stays at the top when updated. See below or Blog Archive on the right for previous posts.

2026-05-07

City clerk closes public records request claiming that it has no responsive documents.

2026-05-01

Volunteer makes public records request for data file used to print and mail notice and ballot.

2026-04-22

Ballots for the fraudulent "special assessment" election are just now hitting people's mail boxes.

Important Tasks

We have a plan to defeat this election, either at the ballot box (city clerk's office) or in the courts.

The first need is to get the data used to generate the ballot and the materials in the ballot envelope. That means a public records request.

The second most important task is to get press (all media) coverage for the campaign. If you have any direct connections to a reporter, a podcaster, a blogger, an influencer, especially local people, please contact us. Until we get the form set up, please text to 909-378-5401: PRESS, your name, and a short note about the person with whom you have a connection. Please, we don't need a list of every reporter out there -- only ones with whom you have a direct connection.

Pacific Palisades Fire Survivors

You are being assessed this fraudulent tax as well even though the City, County, and State government burned down everything you cherished. You have a special, human interest connection with this fraudulent tax. Your voices are likely to get a lot more attention than property owners whose property remains intact.

All Property Owners in the City of Los Angeles

The commercial and institutional property owners have the weighted vote to pass this without you. Please urge every property owner you know to vote NO and return the ballot as early as possible. If you already voted YES, you have an opportunity to change your vote. This is not like the primary election.

Out of the 550,000 ballots that were mailed, a very small percentage (10% to 20%) are likely to be returned. Encouraging people to mail the ballot back, with a NO vote, is worth its weight in, at least, silver.

Updates When New Material Is Added

To get notified when updates are posted, follow this blog in the upper right.

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City Clerk Loses Election Records

City Clerk's Office Can't Find the Records for the June 2nd Street Lighting Assessment Election

We connected with a lawyer willing to make a public records request for the data file that was used to create the individualized ballots for each property owner subject to the special benefit assessment. The request was made on May 1, 2026.

Today, the City Clerk (who is the elections official conducting the election) closed the request. The reason?

"As of this date, our office has determined that the Office of the City Clerk is not in possession of any documents or information relating to your request."

The closing note goes on to suggest that the Bureau of Street Lighting may have the records.

Note the poster was identified as 'Staff.' No City employee wants to take responsibility.

We were requesting the data file used by the elections official (the city clerk) to print and mail the ballots for the special benefit street lighting election.

NextRequest.com

The City uses a third-party software vendor, CivicPlus, to handle public records requests. It claims to be "Modern FOIA & Public Records Request Software." The software requires that a requester have an account to access the records. The software and all the data, including the accounts, is located on the vendor's servers.

We tried to document the City's failure to know what it's doing by archiving the page. While The Wayback Machine (archive.org) did its job, the archived page goes into a never-ending loop while trying to display the page. We surmise that the vendor doesn't want its results permanently available for public viewing. So much for 'public' records.

Nowhere in the California Public Records Act does it authorize an agency subject to the Act to force the public to create an account with a third-party vendor.

We've encountered this vendor before with the County of Riverside. In that case, we couldn't even view the records without creating an account (which we didn't).

The City is not only corrupt, but also does everything it can to frustrate the public.

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New: Media Page

We now have a page that shows media coverage of the street lighting assessment tax.

A group of links we just found to today, will be added very shortly.

You can help add to the list, if you find something relevant.

Check it out here;

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