For years, City of Los Angeles employees have been able to communicate via Google Chat messages Automatically deleted after 24 hours.

Even after a community group exposed the city-sanctioned practice last year and leading government experts questioned whether it violated public records laws, city officials refused to stop it.

This week, the city abruptly changed course after wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities. All one-to-one and group Google Chat messages will now be saved.

The city's Information Technology Department made the announcement in an email to employees Tuesday. The email said the city enabled Google Chat History "in response to user requests related to citywide emergencies," referring to the wildfires.

The emails note that the messages will now be "subject to legal action, public records requests and internal investigations."

Ted Ross, the technology agency's general manager, confirmed in an email to The Times that Google Chat messages will be retained "indefinitely." Retaining the information will help employees review online conversations during the fire, he said.

"This may be a useful feature for City of Los Angeles employees who use Google Workspace to assist with emergency response activities, as they can view previous messages in threaded discussions," Ross said.

Community group Crane Avenue Safety Alliance has questioned the city's use of the disappearing message, arguing it amounts to a secret, self-destructing communications channel for city businesses. Representatives of the coalition welcomed the decision but accused city officials of trying to evade responsibility for years of improper destruction of public records by linking it to the fires.

The coalition sued the city in 2023 to challenge its approval of a single-family home in Mount Washington and first discovered the missing information during the discovery process of the lawsuit.

Jamie T. Hall, an attorney representing the coalition, accused the city of dishonestly linking the change to wildfires rather than the lawsuit.

"They don't want to take responsibility," he said. "They want to say something else caused this without having to admit that what they did was wrong."

"Many city employees work long hours in response to emergencies, and the ability to save chat logs for more than 24 hours is helpful," said Information Technology Director Ross, who said he was not familiar with the Crane Avenue Safety Alliance lawsuit.

Critics argue that the disappearing information allows officials to circumvent the California Public Records Act, which provides the public with access to records related to government business as well as the city's own records. Document Retention Policy.

City officials did not explain how the disappearing chat feature complies with state public records laws or city policy requiring most records to be kept for at least two years.

Google Chat is available to about 26,000 city employees and has been used in some form since the early 2010s. City officials acknowledged last month that employees had long had the ability to communicate internally and externally with the disappearing information.

In November, the Crane Avenue Safety Alliance threatened additional lawsuits over the information.

An agreement between the coalition and the city signed by a judge last month said the city attorney's office "will immediately conduct an internal investigation into the city's records retention and related policies."

City attorney. Hydee Feldstein Soto's office did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the investigation and whether opening Google Chat history is related to the Crane Boulevard Safety Alliance's legal action.

Hall, the coalition's attorney, said the city needs to formalize a new policy on retaining Google Chat messages. Otherwise, it may turn off chat history again in the future, he said.

Jamie York, a member of the good government group Unrig LA, said the city should never have used the missing information.

"Transparency is very important to a responsible government," she said. "I think it's unfortunate that when the city is threatened with a lawsuit, there's an incentive to follow the law."

Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.