> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # DA’s office warns city council about note passing - URL: https://www.smdp.com/das-office-warns-city-council-about-note-passing/ - Published: 2002-12-07T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T01:03:54.000Z - Author: Andrew Fixmer - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Officials say they’ll continue to write them despite warning* The Santa Monica City Council has been warned that if it doesn’t stop passing private notes during public meetings, council members may face criminal charges. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley wrote to City Hall this week that his office has investigated a past meeting where council members had allegedly come to a decision by secretly passing a note amongst themselves. A complaint was filed with Cooley’s office by Santa Monica resident Chuck Allord that during an April 16 special meeting Mayor Mike Feinstein passed a note asking members to vote against allowing two people who had submitted late requests to speak. Copies of the notes provided to the Daily Press show that among doodlings around the words “boring” and “cheesy,” a question wondering what was being served for dinner that night, and asking another council member about a Lakers game, Feinstein passed a note to council members that read, “I have received two late requests to speak. Let’s vote no.” Cooley said the council had violated “the letter and spirit” of the Brown Act, the state’s public meeting law which forbids public bodies from taking action by the use of a secret ballot. However, Cooley said his office would not take formal action other than to warn the city council to clean up its act. “It’s our belief that a warning will suffice to prevent any future Brown Act violations, which could mean the imposition of criminal or civil penalties,” Cooley wrote. “This office intends to fully enforce the public’s right to complete access to meetings by local legislative bodies. Any future violations will be dealt with accordingly.” Feinstein has admitted to writing the note and passing it to only one other council member, who has not been named by officials. Feinstein was unavailable for comment Friday. Typically, the city council votes to hear late requests to speak from the public for one minute. It’s rare when members of the public are not extended that opportunity, city officials said. Despite the stern warning from the DA’s office, city council members said it would not stop them from passing notes to their colleagues or senior city staff members with questions or comments. “No I don’t think it’s going to stop,” said Councilman Herb Katz. “I don’t think individual notes are a problem as long as it doesn’t have to do with decision making.” > “No I don’t think it’s going to stop. I don’t think individual notes are a problem as long as it doesn’t have to do with decision making.” — — HERB KATZ Santa Monica City Councilman City council members say they don’t remember reading Feinstein’s note at the meeting, and they argue that it’s essential they are able to send each other and city staff notes asking technical questions about issues that arise during the meeting. Many of the notes being passed are typically jokes between members, comments about the proceedings, or requests for a break time in the meeting, council members said. “I don’t make jokes about people at the meetings, but about the Lakers or something,” said Councilwoman Pam O’Connor. “I’m very careful about that. I want to be very respectful of the people there and the process but sometimes you have to also lighten up and have some fun in life.” California Newspaper Publishers Association attorney Jim Ewert said passing the note may not have violated the law. Only if a majority of council members read the note or if there had been a response from one of the council members after speaking to two colleagues, would it have qualified as a violation. “If that (return) communication did not take place, there likely was not a serial meeting and not a Brown Act violation,” Ewert said. It’s rare for a district attorney to take such an active role in ensuring local city councils are complying with the Brown Act, he said. “Mr. Cooley has gone to great lengths I think to ensure that... public bodies continue to follow the law,” Ewert said. “But I think in a lot of other areas of the state, I think it’s pretty much left up to individual constituents to bring their own civil action, or the local newspaper.” Ewert also said while passing the notes may not violate the letter or the law, it certainly looks bad if you’re the public watching it happen. “If you have secret notes being traded back and forth on the dais, even though it’s during an open meeting, its not in keeping with the purpose of the Brown Act,” he said. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie, who was unavailable for comment Friday, has said in the past that she asked council members to keep their note passing to a minimum, or not do it at all. Earlier this week she issued a memo to council members indicating the council had been under investigation by the DA’s office for the alleged Brown Act violation, officials said. She also advised council members in the memo of how comply with the Brown Act, they said. However, while officials acknowledged the memo had been sent, a copy was not made available to the Daily Press because officials say it’s protected under attorney-client privilege. After the April 16 meeting — which was specially called to instruct members of the city’s 15 boards and commissions on how to comply with the Brown Act, among other things — Allord slipped back into the empty council chambers, which had been closed when the meeting ended and everyone had left. Using wadded-up paper to jam the locks on the doors, he was able to sneak back into council chambers after everyone had gone home. Allord then went through the garbage cans behind where the city council sits and retrieved Feinstein’s notes. He taped the pieces together and sent them to Cooley’s office as part of his complaint. Katz said that kind of action shows Allord, who ran for city council this year and in 2000, may have had an agenda. “That is in my opinion a little sick, very dicey and the question is why,” Katz said. “I thought McCarthyism was dead.” Another city council member said Allord’s action changed the way he’ll treat the notes council members usually write during a meeting — which can range from random thoughts to just plain doodling. “I will be more circumspect with what I do with my trash,” said Councilman Richard Bloom. “So I’ll take my notes home with me at the end of the night and shred them in the new paper shredder I have at home.” ^xÄ 4,rema 4,ned 4, who 4,spir 4,so w *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 7, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120702.pdf?ref=smdp.com)