ACLU to File Suit Over Pasadena City Council’s ‘Courtesy Code’

A 1992 Pasadena ordinance aimed at requiring City Council members to be more civil to one another has inspired nothing of the sort.

Last year, then-Mayor Rick Cole told Councilman Isaac Richard: “You’re full of poison.” Richard countered by calling Cole “a narcissistic, pompous hypocrite.”

Now, the code--prompted partially by the volatile Richard and his bickering with council members--is provoking troubles of its own.

American Civil Liberties Union officials say they will file a federal civil rights lawsuit today against Pasadena, saying its courtesy ordinance is unconstitutional.

“It is a muzzle on free speech by elected officials,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the ACLU of Southern California. “The clear import of this case is that the 1st Amendment is not alive and well in Pasadena. Their courtesy code is a throwback to the sort of codes that Southern legislators used against outspoken officials.”

ACLU officials said the ordinance may be the most restrictive of its kind in the nation.

In 1992, a bickering City Council approved the “courtesy code” ordinance, with rules that might be posted on any kindergarten wall: Be courteous. Be cooperative. Be fair.

Pasadena City Atty. Victor Kaleta said he could not comment because he has not seen the lawsuit.

Rosenbaum said that ACLU attorneys, and co-counsel Dan Stormer, got involved at Richard’s request. Richard’s stormy three-year tenure has included two censures by his colleagues for allegedly using abusive language. He has been denied perks, such as free Rose Bowl tickets and a brief chance that council members had to greet President Clinton at a Pasadena stop.

Cole, who has tangled often with Richard, said courtesy was not the problem with his colleague.

“Council member Richard wasn’t censured for being discourteous,” Cole said. “He was censured twice for abusive behavior and threats against the city staff . . . this deals not with speech but behavior.”

Richard said the lawsuit is being filed on behalf of his constituency’s right to fair representation.

“This lawsuit is not about Isaac Richard,” he said. “It’s about the constituency’s right to elect who they want to elect and have them advocated and represented in a way that they want to see.”

Richard was censured in August, 1992, after city Housing Administrator Phyllis Mueller filed a sexual harassment complaint against him for cursing and threatening her during a council meeting. In June, 1993, he was censured for cursing a roomful of city officials, including City Clerk Maria Stewart, who also filed a sexual harassment complaint.

In October, a Superior Court judge ordered Richard to keep his distance from Councilman Chris Holden for the next three years. In a court petition, Holden said Richard threatened him and tried to provoke a fight in the Rose Bowl press box in a dispute over the city’s complimentary tickets to the Rose Bowl game.