SANTA MONICA : City Attorney Retains Job Despite Flap Over Homeless

Santa Monica City Atty. Robert M. Myers’ refusal to prosecute all violators of a new law aimed at keeping people from living in the city’s parks has triggered an unsuccessful move to fire him for insubordination.

The City Council on Wednesday voted 5-2 against dismissal of their controversial attorney; it also refused to order Myers to prosecute violators of the new law. The law was suggested by the city’s homeless task force, endorsed by the police chief and passed by the City Council in April.

Myers refused to write the law because in his view it is “repressive and unconstitutional,” leading the council to retain outside attorneys for legal advice. But the council majority said it concurred with Myers’ exercise of his prosecutorial discretion to ignore the new law because of limited resources, clogged courts and his view that convictions would be difficult to obtain.