The full report is linked here.
An excerpt from the report…
SANDAG’S RESPONSE TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE MEASURE A FORECASTING ERROR
During our investigation into the Measure A forecasting error, we discovered several lapses in judgment in SANDAG’s response to the discovery of the forecasting error. Because these flaws were closely related to the subject of our investigation, we have included them in the report.
On October 28, 2016, SANDAG held an executive team meeting, during which John Kirk, SANDAG’s General Counsel, advised those in attendance that they should delete draft documents before retaining them for 60 days, otherwise they would need to keep them for two years. Although Kirk was restating SANDAG’s publicly-disclosed record retention policy, his reminder, in light of recent press inquiries and anticipated requests for documents, suggested to some employees that they should delete more than just draft documents. As a result, some employees may have deleted non-draft documents related to the forecasting error.
A few days later, on November 1, 2016, Kurt Kroninger, Director of Technical Services at SANDAG, created a folder known as “Hana Tools.” He then instructed all SANDAG staff investigating the Measure A forecasting error to store in Hana Tools all the documents they generated as part of the search. Kroninger believed that all these documents were “drafts” under SANDAG Board policy and California law, and thus could be deleted within sixty days. Thus, Hana Tools was to serve as a central location where these documents could be stored and then mass deleted so they wouldn’t be released as part of a public records request. We believe that Kirk approved this use of Hana Tools. Although we have been informed that none of the documents on Hana Tools were in fact deleted, we lack forensic data to confirm this assertion.
On January 6, 2017, Ron Roberts published an editorial in the Voice of San Diego on the Measure A forecasting error. In it, he stated that SANDAG did not know before the election that DEFM could have caused the Measure A forecast to be overestimated. He also stated that when SANDAG staff became concerned about the Series 13 taxable retail sales forecast a year before the election, they did not realize that this forecast could affect TransNet. The following month, Gallegos sent a letter to the SANDAG Board in which he repeated Roberts’s claim that, a year before the election, SANDAG staff had not realized that the taxable retail forecast could affect TransNet. These cited statements were, at best, insufficiently transparent.