IRVINE : Personal Attack Ban Upheld in Ruling

The city attorney on Friday upheld the legality of a City Council rule that prohibits residents from initiating complaints about city employees during public meetings.

But at what point the mayor can cut off members of the public who direct harsh personal attacks on individual City Council members is unclear, City Atty. John L. Fellows said in an opinion released Friday.

Fellows researched the matter after an Irvine resident attacked the rule as an abridgement of free speech. The complaint was made in September by Mark P. Petracca, a political science professor at UC Irvine. The city released a copy of Fellows’ report on the issue late Friday.

The City Council is expected to discuss Fellows’ report on the issue Tuesday.

In his report, Fellows cited a recent Norwalk lawsuit in which a man sued the City Council over its rule prohibiting “personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane” remarks directed at council members. Norwalk’s rule was upheld by the courts.

That case supports an Irvine ordinance requiring the public to talk to the council as a whole and not to particular members, his report said.

“You can’t say, ‘Council member X, you are morally bankrupt for doing this,’ ” Fellows said.

Still, he said, it would be difficult for the mayor to decide at what point a speech strayed from a matter of public interest into the realm of personal attack. Petracca said Fellows’ report vindicates the rights of residents to criticize council members.

“It is possible to be decorous in one’s criticism and yet make critical points . . . directed at a particular council member,” Petracca said.

Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan had told him, he said, that the rules prohibit criticism of council members, and she was going to enforce it to prevent personal attacks on her and council members. Sheridan could not be reached Friday.

The Norwalk case affirms the right of a city council’s presiding officer to cut off speakers when they are becoming disruptive, Fellows said. Attacks on council members, especially when there is a large audience apt to cheer the speaker, certainly could be disruptive, he said.