Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich must be thanked and applauded for opening up her latest meeting with the Pepperdine lawyers last week, and for making their memos and legal research available to anyone who asks. This change complies exactly with what was requested two weeks ago, full compliance with the state’s Brown Act.
Continuous openness is mandatory as the city evaluates a possible Paparazzi ordinance. Had that policy been in effect from April 30, it would have spared all of us much time and hassle. The people’s business can only be conducted in public, and contrary to the city attorney’s opinion, the Brown Act specifically covers any committee that the City Council OKs, even a committee of one, and even if the original vote is less formal than usual.
Several council members seemed to feel that their First Amendment rights to talk to whomever they want are threatened by the Open Meetings law. The law does not prevent council members from speaking to anyone, anytime, but it does declare that a City Committee created by a City Council shall conduct its meetings in public.
Because the latest official meeting of the MaliPapCom was out in the fresh air, we learn that the city is researching how freelance reporters and photographers can be forced to buy insurance, bonds, business licenses and pay special taxes in Malibu. We also learn that freelance journalists would be prohibited from covering items of public interest at or near schools, and that the city would start defining what is “acceptable journalism” to weed out paparazzi from those of us covering legitimate news. None of that is constitutional, advisable or needed. The real problem is that the few deputies patrolling Malibu cannot be everywhere, and even the existing laws are not being enforced.
No lawsuit can be filed so long as the city is holding public sessions. But any local effort to protect basic constitutional rights must include appropriate court action should secret meetings resume, documents for a public committee be withheld, or unconstitutional ordinances get passed by our City Council.
Hans Laetz