Santa Monica Council Fires City Attorney : Government: Robert Myers had resisted orders to crack down on the homeless. His ouster comes at an explosive meeting as his supporters hiss and scream.

Robert M. Myers, the powerful city attorney at the center of Santa Monica’s contentious debate over how to deal with the community’s large homeless population, has been fired by the City Council.

The ouster occurred Tuesday night at an explosive public meeting that verged on a mob scene as dozens of Myers’ supporters hissed, stomped and vented their fury at his dismissal.

“Shame! Shame!” screamed the supporters as the council members voted 6 to 1 to end their 11-year relationship with the city attorney, effective Friday. “Don’t do it,” said the supporters’ hastily scrawled signs.

Myers remained unbowed, speaking not a word at the meeting. But he later released a statement saying in part, “I have been fired because I refuse to compromise my principles and use the power of my office to hurt poor people in our community.”

Revered for years as the architect and chief defender of the city’s tough rent-control ordinance, Myers has been reviled of late for his stubborn resistance to all attempts to crack down on unruly elements among the homeless.

His most publicized act of defiance was his refusal in January to draft an ordinance to regulate camping in city parks and public places, forcing the City Council to hire outside attorneys to draw up the law. Later, he declined to prosecute violators arrested under the new law.

Through almost a year of tumult, Myers’ allies on the council have been effusive in their praise of the city attorney, who said he would not be a party to what he viewed as efforts to criminalize homelessness. In the end, however, his political friends did him in.

“Fundamentally, we are at loggerheads,” said Councilman Dennis Zane, who has worked on rent-control issues with Myers for 15 years. “We have the right to expect--and the city attorney has the obligation to pursue--our direction.”

In Santa Monica, the city attorney is an employee of the City Council.

Councilwoman Judy Abdo said a hard-fought community consensus forged over the last year by a citizens’ Task Force on Homelessness could not be sacrificed to the principles of one man--even though she said she shared his values. The task force delivered a plan for more housing and social services balanced by law enforcement measures--including the camping ban--to keep the peace.

Councilman Herb Katz, one of two members who have been trying to oust Myers since October, said the firing “should have been done months ago.”

“We cannot have anarchy in city government,” he said.

Katz, Myers and others attributed the firing to election-year politics. Four council seats are up for grabs in November, and there is a growing sense around City Hall that frustration over the city’s problems with the homeless has reached a point where it may threaten the continued control of the council by the tenants-rights coalition that dominates city politics. “I think they’re worrying about their political skins in November,” said James Lafferty, local director of the National Lawyers Guild, a liberal bar association.

Myers opted for the public firing, even though council members had offered him the option of a quiet resignation with severance pay to avoid the spectacle of the public dismissal. He will receive nine months’ severance pay, or about $82,000.

After the vote, Myers circled the dais to shake hands with each council member, then left the council chambers to thunderous applause. In the hallway, Myers was besieged by fans who lined up for bearhugs from the usually aloof attorney.

Council members said they had decided to sever their relationship with Myers in the last month as yet another confrontation over the homeless loomed. Myers last week sent the council a memo saying that no one in his office could write an ordinance to regulate large gatherings in the park. It would be a conflict of interest, he said, because many of them--including Myers--were involved in meals programs for the homeless in the parks.