San Mateo County board of Harbor Commissioners
January 15, 2014
RE: Item 6 of the 01-15-2014 Harbor District Board meeting - Records Management: Destruction of Records
Dear President Bernardo, Harbor Commissioners, Board of Supervisors, members of the public and other elected officials,
I respectfully request that the following email content be read into the public record.
I am Dr. Mary Larenas and unfortunately, as a working professional, I will not be able to attend the Harbor Commission meeting tonight in South San Francisco. Therefore I would like to use this correspondence as a means to express my deep concerns with a pattern of behavior by certain Harbor Commissioners and staff.
Throughout 2013, there has been a progressive attempt to limit and restrict public comment, curtail the efforts of certain Harbor Commissioners who attempt reform, access to Harbor Commission meetings and information about the inner workings of the harbor management. To date there have been motions adopted by particular Harbor Commissioners and staff which curtail public comment, restrict Commissioner questions and actions, end video recordings of meetings (critical to those of us who cannot attend all of the meetings), hide financial records, and now an attempt to destroy records (Item 6) that may shed light on harbor activities. One only needs to review past videos of meetings to view the progress of these behaviors and restrictive actions - unless these are among the records to be destroyed.
These actions to limit, curtail, restrict, hide, serve to only deepen my concern with the direction the Harbor Commission and harbor staff is heading, which is towards a total lack of transparency.
Therefore I am asking that Item 6, on the 01-15-2014 Harbor District (HD) Agenda; Destruction of Records be pulled and no action taken on this matter until further investigation.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Mary Larenas
Moss Beach, CA
Email Response from Robert Bernardo to Dr. Mary Larenas 1-15-14:
Dear Dr. Larenas,
On behalf of the San Mateo County Harbor District, thank you for your email and for sharing your concerns.
This serves as an acknowledgement that I have received your message and intend to read your letter at tonight's meeting for the public record.
Please note that with regards to agenda item #6 related to records disposal, Harbor staff have reviewed each of the file boxes again have found that two items are in fact, duplicates. They are copies of originals, so they may be disposed of. The original items remain in the District’s archives for permanent retention. One other item has been removed from the list for disposal. All other items on the list remain eligible for disposal.
Thank you,
Robert Bernardo
President
San Mateo County Harbor Commission
Tel. 650-794-1810