Apology Issued for Shredding Documents

The mayor of Bradbury publicly apologized to residents this week for toting a shredder into City Hall over the weekend to chew city documents into confetti.

The incident came on the heels of two city scandals uncovered by gadfly Robert Penney Jr., and it heightened the mistrust of residents in the tiny and affluent San Gabriel Valley city.

Last month, Penney found that hundreds of thousands of county tax dollars have paid for private security guards at the wealthy gated enclave of Bradbury Estates over the past 14 years. And earlier this month, his diggings in the city trash bin turned up evidence that City Manager Dolly Vollaire may have used the city credit card for personal gain, prompting a criminal investigation and her resignation.

Enter the shredder: When Penney took a peek in the trash bin on Saturday, he found bags of shredded bits, accompanied by a personal message: a cardboard sign that read, “Bob: Stay out of our trash this weekend. There’s nothing in here.”

Only duplicates of sensitive documents, such as confidential correspondence from the attorney regarding litigation or personnel matters, got torn up in the machine, Mayor Audrey Hon said.

The shredder has been removed, Hon assured residents at a City Council meeting this week.