Dateline Montebello — The city of Montebello’s City Clerk is withholding documents requested by Hews Media Group-Community News concerning the campaign finance reports of Mayor Jack Hadjinian and candidate Vanessa Delgado.
We called City Clerk Daniel Hernandez on Monday morning requesting the latest campaign documents filed a few days ago. The message was left on Mr. Hernandez’s voicemail.
Publisher Brian Hews indicated he would come to Montebello and pick them up or that the clerk could email the documents to the newspaper.
Mr. Hews informed Mr. Hernandez that time was of the essence, given that the City Council election is Tuesday, and that the voters need to know who is donating money to the two candidates.
As of yesterday, Mr. Hews had not received a response.
Mr. Hews immediately emailed Montebello City Manager Francesca Schuyler. He told her of his message to Mr. Hernandez and the non-response.
Mr. Hews asked Ms. Schuyler to expedite the document request.
So far, neither Ms. Schuyler nor Mr. Hernandez had contacted Mr. Hews.
“Under the Freedom of Information Act, a city does have 10 days to produce documents, and in the case of large requests, 14 days after that,” said Mr. Hews.
“However, if a person asked for the documents immediately, the request normally is granted, especially if the person requesting the documents travels to the City Clerk’s office. I have been into the Cerritos City Clerk’s office many times. They hand me the documents. I mark them for copy, and the clerk produces the documents immediately. The Norwalk Registrar/Recorders Office will provide the same service. I don’t see why the Montebello City Clerk will not produce the documents for me ASAP,” said Mr. Hews.
“The documents are brought in by the candidates as a complete report on letter-size paper. The clerk hole-punches the documents and files under the candidate’s name. This is not rocket science. They can produce the documents very quickly.”
The Hews Media Group may be contacted at loscerritosnews.net
