Barred From Closed Council Sessions, Treasurer Wants In

The treasurer of Redondo Beach is battling with city leaders for access to closed City Council meetings, saying that by excluding her, the council could be costing taxpayers money.

Treasurer Alice DeLong says information from some closed sessions could shed light on the correct value of businesses developed on harbor land leased from the city. That, she says, would help her ensure that the city gets the proper amount of real estate transfer tax revenue when the leaseholds are sold.

DeLong charges that council members keep such meetings private under pressure from harbor leaseholders who don’t want the public to know the details of their financial dealings.

“They donate very heavily to people’s campaigns. That’s why, in my opinion,” said DeLong, who asked to be admitted to a closed council session on Tuesday but was turned down in a 3-2 vote.

Mayor Brad Parton angrily rejects her charge: “That’s a total lie. There’s no validity to that at all.”

The closed meeting DeLong tried to attend Tuesday concerned the settlement of a lawsuit that Redondo Beach Marina filed against the city concerning storm damage it sustained in 1988. She says she had heard that a private appraisal of the marina property might be presented at the meeting and wanted to see it.

“That’s the kind of information that helps me do my job,” she said.

DeLong asserts that her work has also been complicated by the council’s closed-session consideration of several major lease transfers at King Harbor. Among the properties involved: the Portofino Hotel, the Port Royal Marina complex and the commercial area at the entrance to Redondo Beach Pier.

DeLong said she believed that the city had not “gotten a correct value on any of them” although she could not be certain “because we haven’t got the information.”

In such leasehold sales, the county is supposed to collect separate real estate transfer taxes for it and Redondo Beach, then forward the city’s tax to it. But the county relies on leaseholders to report the amount of tax money they owe, says Assistant County Registrar-Recorder Richard Hughes.

“It could be understated,” said Hughes, whose agency administers the transfer tax collection, because the leaseholder makes the calculations and the county trusts the taxpayer to do it correctly just as the state or federal government does with income taxes.

Faced with this, DeLong said, she prefers to do her own calculations, especially for leasehold transfers, where the price may not be registered with the county as with most real estate.

In one case, she has been able to determine independently that the tax money paid to the county wasn’t sufficient, she said, and is now trying to collect the difference directly from the leaseholder. In two cases, the county failed to collect any transfer tax at all, she charged.

Key to ensuring that the city gets what it is owed, DeLong said, is learning the sale price or seeing private appraisals. Redondo Beach bases its transfer tax on the market value of the leasehold.

Because the county doesn’t verify leasehold sale prices and because county appraisals aren’t always up to date, she added, her job would be easier if she had access to leaseholder information considered in closed meetings.

“Otherwise, I have to scurry around and try to find out myself,” DeLong said. “ . . . We should be able to get this information. These are city leases.”

City leaders who disagree with DeLong point out that the council, as permitted by state law, has long held closed sessions on pending litigation, employee decisions and real estate negotiations. And decisions taken in closed session--but not necessarily the information used to come to the conclusion--are always made public, as required by law, they said.

They say they have strong reservations about opening up the deliberations behind those decisions to what eventually could become a wider circle of city officials.

“To me, closed sessions are a very holy cloister,” said Councilwoman Kay Horrell. “You go in and make decisions on items that, if revealed, could hurt the city. If someone is suing the city, and you come out with information you hear, someone on the other side could use it against the city.”

Not all council members agree.

Stevan Colin, one of the two council members who voted to admit DeLong to Tuesday’s closed session, says the longtime city treasurer should be included in any closed sessions on finances because the council could benefit from her experience.

Colin suggested that the real reason DeLong isn’t being admitted is that she often criticizes the council in public, and some council members fear that closed sessions would provide her with ammunition.

“I think they’re afraid she’ll say, ‘This is not such a good deal for the city,’ ” Colin said Thursday. “Alice DeLong is always outspoken.”

DeLong said she might not insist on attending closed meetings if she knew she could have access to leaseholder information. But this request has also met with resistance. City Manager Tim Casey said he has made it a point to refuse requests for such information if the information is given to the city in confidence.

“If someone comes in and says, ‘I will supply this information, but I really don’t want it to be tomorrow’s headlines,’ that always seemed to me a reasonable request,” Casey said.