Some residents offended by e-mail during meetings
While the common practice of council members passing notes to each other during public meetings isn’t a violation of the law, it sure looks bad, some residents and officials say.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley sent City Hall a stern warning last week because former Mayor Mike Feinstein allegedly passed a note during an April meeting that said, “I have received two late requests to speak. Let’s vote no.”
A resident — who was one of the late requests to speak — fished the note out of the garbage after the meeting and sent it to Cooley’s office, which launched an investigation.
Feinstein sent the message during a special April 16 council meeting, which was specially called to instruct members of the city’s boards and commissions on how to comply with the Brown Act, the state’s public meeting law.
525,“I am not aware and I don’t believe the note went to anyone but one other council member, and this was not a decision making meeting and only a study session,” Feinstein said. “But that being said, this was an error, and it won’t happen again.”
For now, Cooley’s office has said it will only warn the council to clean up its act when it comes to passing notes. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office said investigators will continue to randomly monitor the meetings and keep in contact with concerned residents in the city.
However, if the district attorney’s office finds further evidence of wrongdoing by council members, Cooley said through a spokeswoman that he wouldn’t hesitate pressing charges. Violating the Brown Act is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a fine, said Jane Robinson, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor.
“This is exactly the kind of behavior Steve Cooley wanted to end when he decided to create the public integrity division two years ago,” she said. “Usually we rely on citizens, but we also have investigators who we send out to meetings unannounced.”
Many residents said they understand council members are typically sending each other notes that have little to do with what’s going on during the meeting. But they also say the practice looks bad.
35A,“Probably a lot of it is innocuous, but it makes people wonder what’s going on because they can see it happening,” said Tom Larmore, a resident who is regularly at city council meetings. “I mean, we think it’s innocuous but we don’t really know. Nobody knows (what they are writing).”
Other residents who attend the council meetings said passing notes is typically not controversial. They say the notes are on minor topics and are usually sent to staff members and not other council members.
“Sometimes it’s just to say things like ‘did you bring a document with you,’ or it could be something like ‘Hey, you’re fly’s unzipped’ or ‘there’s something in your teeth,’” said Patricia Hoffman, a former school board member who is routinely at council meetings. “They tend to be a little personal aside to someone. They tend not to be substance to the meetings.”
Peter Tigler, a member of the Pico Neighborhood Association, sends a weekly political cartoon by e-mail. He said while he’s still deciding whether to chime in on the note passing issue, he thinks the incident — as well as many other things the council does — makes great fodder for his cartoons.
“It’s like it’s still the third grade up there, except everybody is 40 years old,” Tigler said.
“It’s like it’s still the third grade up there, except everybody is over 40 years old.” — — PETER TIGLER Santa Monica resident
After City Hall received Cooley’s letter, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie wrote each council member a memo on the specifics of passing notes, and warned them that Cooley is known for being tough on Brown Act issues, officials said. She advised council members to cease passing notes to each other entirely, officials said.
Richard Bloom, who was appointed mayor of Santa Monica on Tuesday, said he would not instruct council members on how to act when it comes to passing notes, or instruct them to follow Moutrie’s advice.
3AD,“In my opinion, each council member should make their own assessment of Ms. Moutrie’s advice and act accordingly,” Bloom said. “The facts of the incident are somewhat bizarre and certainly an aberration.
“I believe the district attorney understood this, but felt compelled to remind us that elected and appointed officials are going to be held to a very high standard of conduct,” he added. “Santa Monicans would not have it any other way.”
Other residents brought up the issue of some council members sending and receiving e-mails from their laptops during council meetings. They said if a handwritten note is problematic, then what’s to prevent a city councilman from sending e-mails to others on the dais about an issue discussed at the meeting.
“It sounds like people are home watching T.V. and sending messages commenting about what’s going on and the public has no idea that it’s going on,” Larmore said. “I don’t think that’s right.”
“It sounds like people are home watching T.V. and sending messages commenting about what’s going on and the public has no idea that it’s going on.” — — TOM LARMORE Santa Monica resident
It’s not yet clear whether council members who send and receive e-mails during a meeting are violating any laws. The state attorney general has said the practice sends the wrong message to the public, but it’s not illegal unless the message is sent to a majority of the council, officials said.
“The attorney general issued an opinion recently that members of a legislative body should be discouraged from sending e-mail, especially when it’s relatively easy for one member to hit a ‘replay all’ key and create a... situation,” said Jim Ewert, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Some council members defend the practice. They say sending and receiving e-mails from constituents during a meeting is no different than when members of the public talk to them when they are on a break during the meeting.
And they say parents who couldn’t find a baby-sitter and are home watching the meeting on T.V. are able to still participate in local government.
“If we can include them, then should we not conscientiously do that?” said Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown, who regularly checks e-mails during the public hearing portion of the meeting.
To some, it all comes down to how much you trust your public officials. In Santa Monica, there is a long tradition of making the process open to the public, and many here said they feel comfortable that if there were a problem it would be addressed.
“If any of them do receive a note of substance, something that is clearly a violation, then they should be man or woman enough to hand that over to the city attorney, or who ever is the referee,” Tigler said. “How people feel about all this probably comes down to how they think council members would respond if something like that was ever sent to them.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 13, 2002. Read the original PDF.