Public Records Requests Reveal That Mayor Bass’ Phone Auto-Deletes Messages
On January 7, as powerful winds and dry conditions fueled a destructive fire in Pacific Palisades, Mayor Bass was more than 7,000 miles away on an official diplomatic trip to Africa. As the fire spread, destroying homes and forcing evacuations, Bass quickly returned to Los Angeles, spending nearly 24 hours in transit.
While her office insists that she was in constant communication with city officials during that period, there is no way to verify the content of those communications. A city attorney has confirmed that Bass’ phone is set to automatically delete text messages after 30 days.
Spectrum News’ Kate Cagle said, in an Instagram post, “Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says she is trying to recover her text messages from January regarding the Palisades Fire after her phone automatically deleted them after thirty days”
Under California law, any written communication relating to government business is considered a public record. The Los Angeles Times and other news organizations filed public records requests in early January, seeking text messages related to Bass’ fire response and travel arrangements.
However, on March 7, nearly two months later, Bass’ office responded that it had “no responsive records.” When pressed further, City Attorney David Michaelson clarified that Bass’ phone settings do not retain messages beyond 30 days and that there is no legal requirement for city officials to preserve text messages.
Legal analysts and transparency advocates argue that such a policy contradicts Los Angeles’ own document retention rules, which require most government records to be kept for at least two years.
“There is no way for the press and public to hold government fully accountable without access to all the information,” said David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition. “The ability to review records is fundamental to trust in public officials.”
Further complicating the issue is the question of whether Mayor Bass and other city officials used alternative communication platforms, such as Google Chat, which does not automatically store conversations unless the chat history setting is enabled.
According to reports, Los Angeles officials only enabled chat history on January 14—several days after the fire and after multiple media organizations had submitted requests for digital communications.
KTLA filed a public records request on January 15 for messages involving Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. The Los Angeles Times had already submitted a similar request on January 10. By January 13, city officials were reportedly discussing whether to disable Google Chat altogether.
If Bass and other officials relied on Google Chat or other ephemeral messaging systems, it remains unclear whether those communications were redacted, deleted, or simply never preserved.
The lack of transparency surrounding the mayor’s communications during a critical emergency response has raised alarm among legal experts.
“The mayor and the fire chief are public servants employed by the citizens of Los Angeles,” said legal analyst Alison Triessl. “The best way to build trust is through full transparency in government. Conversely, the quickest way to erode that trust is for officials to work in secrecy, hiding behind disappearing text messages.”
