A Commitment to Transparency
In April of this year, the City Council approved the
formation of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Proposed Downtown Stadium and Event
Center. At the June so” meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee, a representative
of the Office of the City Attorney opined that ad hoc committees of this City
Council are not bound by the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act — the state
law that guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of
local legislative bodies. The City Attorney’s interpretation is startling. And
while some may argue it is legal for the City Council to form ad hoc committees
that have the right to waive or ignore public notice and information
requirements, doing so would break faith with a public that rightly expects and
deserves transparency in its government. THEREFORE MOVE that the CLA, in
consultation with the City Attorney, draft an amendment to City Council Rules,
requiring that all Council committees, standing and ad hoc, be required to
abide by the public notice requirements of the Brown Act.
That is the full text of a motion proposed by Bill Rosendahl and backed by Paul Krekorian and Council President Eric Garcetti that created an uproar Wednesday in the City Council.
Rosendahl was startled, as he says, to learn at last week’s meeting of Jan Perry’s committee on the stadium deal that the ad hoc committee was not required to comply with the Brown Act, the state open meeting law, so agendas did not have to be posted 72 hours in advance, the public did not have the right to speak and the committee could meet behind closed doors and talk about anything it wanted.
His motion merely required the City Attorney to draft a new Council rule requiring the stadium committee to do its business openly and honestly.
Perry was outraged by his suggestion. Tony Cardenas was insulted, eloquently talking about the council’s commitment to democratic processes that is second to none. Richard Alarcon, the accused perjurer awaiting trial, was offended that anyone could ever question his integrity.
The Council always at at all times operates totally openly and above board, making intelligent decisions in the best interest of the public and the city, they insisted. How dare Rosendahl say such things.
For more than an hour, Tom LaBonge double-talked even more incoherently than usual. Janice Hahn flip-flopped back and forth as is her wont. Ed Reyes mumbled to himself.
Back and forth, they went sounding like Abbott and Costello doing their “Who’s on first?” shtick, only it wasn’t funny. This is the costliet, riskiest and most controversial deal to come before the Council it decades and only Rosendahl has questioned what is going on, asking a hundred questions and getting a hundred non-answers.
The point of what Perry and friends was up to was to put him in his place, to let him know that he was out of line and if he knew what was good for him, he would shut his mouth. This deal is too important, too loaded with “juice” for the politicians to mess up by allowing the public to be full participants in a truly open and honest process.
As Assistant City Attorney Dion Connell noted with his Spockian dispassion: Violating the Brown Act by an ad hoc committee is legal and has no negative consequences even if it’s true the Council’s usual practice is to comply with the law. But it the Rosendahl rule were imposed on the committee, then anyone could sue if the do business in secret or exclude the public form being full and informed participants.
Finally, it came time to vote and presiding officer Dennis Zine, the traffic cop who wants to by City Controller, called for a vote but he was so confused he didn’t have clue what they were to vote on so he asked the Council’s City Clerk Alan Alietti what was before the Council.
Now Alietti is from all appearances a lot smarter and articulate than anyone who sits on the Council, an unflappable source of clarity in a muddled world of confusion and contradiction.
What followed over the next 10 minutes left him speechless. Left him stuttering and stammering. Left him flummoxed and confused. Should have left the entire City Council embarrassed and ashamed.
With Zine’s rulings as presiding officer and the Council’s proclivity for lies and deceit, the outcome was pre-determined: Rosendahl’s call for a rule requiring compliance of the Brown Act in the name of transparency was sent to a committee where LaBonge promised it will remain buried until all the back room deals are cut for the benefit of AEG and its plan to own an NFL stadium on public land and reap all the profits from naming rights, billboards and everything else and stick the public with nothing but the bills for paying off more than $750 million in borrowing.
Once again, the wolves had silenced the lambs and were ready to move for the kill.
Question 1: If fewer Councilmembers show up for the NFL stadium vote, making the five man committee members an actual quorum, would it, then, be a violation of the Brown Act?
Question 2: Are there any other members of this committee other than Council members?
I am pasting the code below that the City Attorney referred to. Could someone please advise? Is this ad hoc committee more like a “standing committees of a legislative body, irrespective of their composition, which have a continuing subject matter jurisdiction” and, therefore, according to the exception stated in the code, is subject to the Brown Act?
Government Code 54952. As used in this chapter, “legislative body” means:
(a) The governing body of a local agency or any other local body
created by state or federal statute.
(b) A commission, committee, board, or other body of a local agency, whether permanent or temporary, decisionmaking or advisory,
created by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body. However, advisory committees, composed solely of
the members of the legislative body that are less than a quorum of the legislative body are not legislative bodies, except that standing
committees of a legislative body, irrespective of their composition, which have a continuing subject matter jurisdiction, or a meeting
schedule fixed by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body are legislative bodies for purposes of this
chapter.
OMG !!! The bafoons I knew would speak out against transparency and for the side of corruption did exactly that yesterday. Time and time again these moron city council members embarrass themselves and the City. Good for Rosendahl, Koretz for again trying to at least give the perception of honest and open hearings. Jan Perry must be fuming taking her directions from AEG and wanting closed door hearings on their NFL deal. Anytime council members rant and rave against any type of TRANSPARENCY you know they are up to no good. Who else would be against making it easier for THE PEOPLE to know what’s going on but the corrupt fools in council we have now. Alarcon should have been behind bars a long time ago.
Krekorian had to defend Rosendahl. Rosendahl did speak up later, but in the beginning he wimped a little by saying vote as you wish colleagues instead of saying I urge you to support this.
The first question is did City Council create the Ad Hoc Studium Committee? If it took any action to create it or give a mission, then this sentence applies: “A commission, committee, board, or other body of a local agency, whether permanent or temporary, decisionmaking or advisory,
created by charter, ordinance, resolution, or formal action of a legislative body.”
The next question is whether or not the Ad Hoc Stadium Committee is decision making or advisory. If advisory, and composed only of Councilmembers less than a quorum of the City Council, then it may not be a legislative body subject to the Brown Act.
In order for its meetings to be shielded from public scrutiny, and “recommendation” from such an advisory committee could NOT be listed on the City Council’s agenda as an item for which hearing has already been held. In other words, when the action comes before City Council, it will require a full hearing with the right of the public to speak on the matter.
Of course, the question is when will the details of the deal be released to the public under such a scenario? Council is required to make it available when the agenda is posted or the agenda package is made available to the Council members.
This is a big deal.
The CAO admitted that all Ad Hoc Committees (about 5 currently) had been following the rules of the Brown Act.
As reported by Ron Kaye, Jan Perry wanted to meet behind closed doors to discuss items with negotiators (which is allowed under the Brown Act as an Executive Session).
A question about who can participate and the fact that any decision or action of the Committee would have to be reported after the closed session, concerned Jan Perry and she asked for an opinion of the City Attorney who said that the Ad Hoc Stadium Committee was not required to be operated under the Brown Act.
Rosendahl then made the motion which was heard on Wed, July 6, 2011 at the City Council.
Rosendahl was in the right.
Those City Council members – Cardenas, Perry, Alarcon strongly feeling offended and opposing the motion were full of BS and total double-talkers.
Some of those Councilmembers were “offended” and then used another BS excuse of not to offend the City Attorney and his opinion.
The Councilmembers listed above were worried about not looking like against open meetings, but that is exactly what they wanted.
As an example Alarcon stated that we are already observing the Brown Act, but both he, Cardenas, and Perry knew darn well that Perry was seeking a departure from the Brown Act.
The Council is mandated to protect and advance the best interests of Los Angelenos, but the Council appears to be working for AEG, showing utter scorn for Los Angelesos, conducting “negotiations” to ensure approval of AEG’s proposal,no matter what.
Where is the City’s costs-benefits-risk analysis and what were the results?
The pie-in-the-sky AEG sales pitch is marketing mumbo-jumbo and the Council is using this to justify the AEG deal !
Morons!
Serial meeting, anyone?
Serial meeting, anyone?
they all lobbys for AEG what a bunch of cooks and liars
We need to this on the ballot and defeat it like Measure B.
Jan Perry said, Mr. Rosendahl, I CONSIDER YOU A GOOD FRIEND.
It’s a no brainer as Bill Rosendahl would say, and as we want to entertain an NFL Team in good faith we must protect the interest of the Public at Large.
Jan Perry is doing one thing and one thing only: Protecting the Interest of AEG and not paving the way for future generations.
With 16.1% Unemployment in the African American Community the City is willing to “forgo” Transparency for the Sake of NFL Football.
What kind of Bullshit comment, very disrepectful & Very Vindictive Too.. well it’s nice to know that Jan can be friends when it’s good for her but when it pertains to her District, she questions “friendships”.
The Public wants transparcency and Codifiying it in AD HOC Committee further requires better co-ordination and when we pay handsome salaries to Councilmen and “Women” we expect them to Act in the Best interest of Citizens. This display of
AEG does not set dead-lines for the City of Los Angeles.
Our City Council members should be taken behind the woodshed and whipped. There is not one thing about this stadium deal that has been, is or will be transparent.
I found Cardenas’ comments the most interesting.
He was right on the mark when he took issue with the city attorney’s opinion. He stated, per the Government Code, that such a committee (regardless of its size) is a legislative body, put together to advise Council how to vote on this issue that they have continuing subject matter jurisdiction on and, therefore, would have to abide by Mr Brown’s brilliant law.
What was an odd twist was his impassioned performance on how insulted he was that such an unnecessary motion was made since they always conduct their affairs in a transparent manner.
Gosh, you could have fooled me.
Based on the discussion, it looks as if the Committee was appointed by the Council President and confirmed by Council. If so, the City Attorney is dead wrong that it is not a legislative body subject to the Brown Act. Jan Perry is covering her corrupt ass with closed door meetings. This is not in the public interest that there ought to be outcry against these actions.
If you look at next Tuesday’s agenda, AEG is “giving” the City 750,000 dollar to pay for bond counsel and financial advisors…. not to evaluate the deal, but to make the deal move forward.