propaganda City Hall must be desperate for good news.
By GUEST COMMENTARY BY CHRISTOPHER M. HARDING
Last week Judy Rambeau, the city’s “community relations” officer, issued a press release touting the city’s “success” in at least temporarily dodging an attorney’s fees request in a lawsuit brought by the Santa Monica Housing Council. Conveniently omitted from this grossly distorted release are the following facts: • This lawsuit is the sixth time the Housing Council has been forced to sue the city for violating state housing law and the sixth time the Housing Council has prevailed, either through a court order or a capitulation by the city through a late settlement. • In each of these cases, the Housing Council attempted to convince the city to voluntarily change its policies prior to litigation but the city refused to do so, despite the evident weakness of its legal position. • As a result, the Housing Council has been awarded legal fees against the city totaling more than $700,000 when the city could have easily resolved each matter without paying either these fees or absorbing the costs of its own lawyers. As one court said, the Housing Council’s litigation has “dragged the city kicking and screaming into compliance with the law.”
Consistent with this historical pattern, the recent Housing Council case arose from the city’s contention that it was not required to comply with a state housing law mandating that cities follow their own development standards in reviewing new housing projects. Despite many months of effort by the Housing Council, the city refused to change its position and the suit was filed. Only after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Linda Lefkowitz had rejected the city’s position did the city agree to settle in a manner which provided the Housing Council with essentially all of the relief it had sought and the city had previously refused.
While the court did not order the city to pay the Housing Council’s attorney’s fees, which the Housing Council had previously paid through fundraising, Santa Monica’s taxpayers and those who benefit from city services should be very concerned about the city’s wasteful spending on litigation that only became necessary because the city refused to comply with the law.
As for the city’s highly misleading press release, something is seriously amiss in City Hall when Santa Monica’s taxpayers must pay the salaries of the city’s so-called “public information” personnel, only to be fed propaganda masquerading as information. In particular, Deputy City Attorney Cara Silver’s contention that “private lawyers’ request for attorney’s fees continued to drive lawsuits in this city” constitutes a deliberate effort to cover up the city’s failings in this and other cases. As Ms. Silver knows, the city’s steadfast refusal to acknowledge its obligations under state housing law generated this lawsuit. Judge Lefkowitz’s ruling acknowledged that the settlement in this case resolved a “fundamental disagreement over the construction of legislation,” which was the Housing Council’s purpose in filing the lawsuit. Indeed, Judge Lefkowitz referred to this as a very important case when she scheduled it for trial.
The timing of the city’s inflammatory press release is very unfortunate since the Housing Council believes that the city has recently done a better job of complying with the law. Nevertheless, it will continue to monitor the city’s conduct and hopes the city will put its future energies into making sure its various housing policies and practices are lawful rather than ignoring the law and then issuing press releases designed to mislead and confuse the public. (Christopher M. Harding is a private attorney in Santa Monica and represents the Housing Council.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2005. Read the original PDF.