Poway officials announced April 30 that the city has filed a lawsuit against City Councilmember Tony Blain to seek his compliance with the California Public Records Act and to “stop the destruction of public records.”
The civil lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court alleges Blain has refused to produce requested public records from his private s, apps and devices and has deleted public records from those same sources and asked others to delete messages from him.
The city said the suit follows months of attempts to obtain voluntary compliance in response to numerous public records requests for Blain’s messages on private email s, text messaging and other applications, which are all subject to disclosure if discussing city business.
Blain declined to comment Wednesday about the lawsuit.
On Thursday, his attorney, Michael Wales, said in a statement that Blain is in the process of reviewing his devices and responding to the city’s request with the of his law firm, Counterpoint Legal.
“While recent council meetings have been contentious, Tony Blain is dedicated to providing principled and unwavering representation in service to the citizens of the City of Poway,” Wales wrote.
City Attorney Alan Fenstermacher said an independent law firm determined the “case was worthy of being pursued to prevent significant liability for the city.”
The suit was filed by the Pasadena law firm Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley.
“I anticipate Councilmember Blain will call this case ‘political lies,’ a common refrain he has used over the last four months when faced with proof of his unlawful or unwise conduct,” Fenstermacher said in a statement. “Unfortunately for him, the complaint is based on direct quotes from Councilmember Blain, including his text message conversations with people who provided information in compliance with state law when he refused.”
Blain, who has been in his District 2 seat since Dec. 17, is the target of a recall effort by former City Council John Mullin and Anita Edmondson and local businessman John Couvrette. They allege he has abused his power by pressuring city staff to help him file a police report and get a restraining order against two residents who criticized him online – and when staff refused, he filed a report himself.
In February, the City Council voted unanimously to censure Blain amid allegations of vote trading, threatening recalls against colleagues and attempting to use law enforcement to silence critics. Blain did not attend the meeting.
The city alleges in the lawsuit that it has documentation that Blain has itted in writing to deleting messages on his private s that would classify as public records.
Deleting public records violates the public’s trust, Mayor Steve Vaus said in a statement.
The purpose of the California Public Records Act is to give the public access to information that enables them to monitor the functioning of their government, city officials said. The act covers “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics,” officials said.
Blain has denied discussing city business on any platform other than his city email and stated that he has no records to provide, officials said. But officials say they have documentation that Blain “openly conducted city business with city staff using private email s.”
According to the lawsuit, the city has obtained public records in response to records requests from people Blain communicated with using two private email s, text messages and the encrypted Signal app.
Between Jan. 18 and Jan. 24, Blain regularly communicated with Councilmember Jenny Maeda regarding city business, the lawsuit states. At least 24 texts from Blain provided by Maeda discuss such topics as Blain’s efforts to recall the mayor, “exciting stuff happening in Poway,” votes related to Blain’s censure, “fires around the city and his desire to have certain city staff resign or be removed,” the lawsuit states.
“The records document the councilmember conducting city business, as well as the councilmember’s requests for people to delete his text messages and instead use the encrypted Signal messaging application where the city cannot access it,” the city stated.
In a Jan. 23 text to an unnamed individual, Blain wrote “[d]elete all my texts to you ok – Poway Mayor & Attorney trying to sue me – lets change to Signal app – they can’t access it,” according to the lawsuit.
Fenstermacher said the discovery process in this case would likely include a deposition by Blain in which he would answer questions under oath and be subject to the penalty of perjury.
“It’s outrageous that taxpayer dollars must be spent to compel a council member to follow the law,” Vaus said. “If Mr. Blain were truly committed to serving the public, rather than his own political ambitions, this situation could have been avoided.”
