Newport Beach is billed $18,000 for outside lawyers to help fight activist’s defamation suit

The city of Newport Beach was billed nearly $18,000 in outside legal costs related to its defense in a local activist’s lawsuit accusing the city of defamation.

Invoices from Rutan & Tucker, a Costa Mesa-based law firm, show the city amassed a $17,944 bill before the case was tried in December in Orange County Superior Court’s small-claims division.

Judge Thomas Delaney ruled that City Councilwoman Diane Dixon did not defame frequent city government critic Mike Glenn when she said during a public meeting that he owed more than $600 in public records copying fees.

City Atty. Aaron Harp said it is more cost-effective to retain outside counsel as needed to advise on issues such as the defamation and free speech matters Glenn raised.

Glenn, however, called the city’s costs “ridiculous.”

“Can you imagine anyone keeping their job in the real world if they spent $18,000 to collect a $600 debt — especially if that debt was clearly not ever owed?” he said in an email Tuesday.

Delaney said Glenn proved he didn’t owe the fees but also ruled that Dixon’s statement was protected by legislative immunity and that Glenn didn’t show he had been damaged by it.

Harp disputed Glenn’s characterization, saying the city was defending itself in a lawsuit and that the case was not a collection matter.

Newport Beach’s city attorney’s office, which has a staff of five lawyers including Harp, typically handles things such as contracts and ordinances, and there are no in-house civil litigators who specialize in lawsuits, Harp said.

Glenn sued the city after Dixon called him out at an April City Council meeting about $619.93 in fees related to public records requests regarding the Balboa Peninsula Trolley, a topic he had just criticized during a public comment session. He said he never specifically asked for hard copies of the records and said the suggestion that he doesn’t pay his debts besmirched his reputation.

He also accused Assistant City Clerk Jennifer Nelson of committing libel when she sent Glenn an email, copied to two other city employees, telling him that he had not paid for the records.

Though the case was in small-claims court, it had major implications for how the city operates, Harp said.

“If the city clerk is unable to basically communicate with constituents about city business, then we’re not even conducting business as a city,” he said.

Glenn said he chose small-claims court because it wouldn’t place a costly legal burden on the city.

Small-claims trials are relatively speedy, inexpensive and informal, with participants typically representing themselves.

Glenn represented himself at the Dec. 19 trial. City Clerk Leilani Brown appeared as a non-attorney representative for the defendants.

Rutan & Tucker was not listed on the city’s case filings because its lawyers did not represent the city in court but rather acted as consultants, Harp said.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD