Meeting Held in Mayor’s Office Raises Concern

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters on Monday boycotted a mayor’s office gathering on economic development plans out of concern that the private session may have violated the state’s open-meeting law.

The meeting was described by Mayor Richard Riordan’s office as an informal “brainstorming session” on community development banks, an application for federal funds and other tools to stimulate the economies of some of the city’s most blighted neighborhoods. It was held in preparation for a public workshop scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in the mayor’s conference room.

Several council members or their deputies were invited to join Riordan, Deputy Mayor Mary Leslie, who is the mayor’s chief economic adviser, and several private legal and financial experts.

Riordan’s office, noting that Mike Hernandez was the only council member to attend the 10:30 a.m. meeting, said it did not believe the session was improper. But Deputy Mayor Robin Kramer, who took time out from the meeting to pen a response to Walters’ written objections, wrote, “We certainly agree that a city attorney review of the kinds of questions raised in your letter is prudent and look forward to a clarifying discussion.”

Walters said in an interview Monday that she has “raised these concerns many times before” with the mayor, a successful businessman and attorney who has often expressed frustration with the cumbersome mechanics of government. He has turned frequently to volunteer advisers from the private sector to help him accomplish goals faster.

“I understand the mayor is accustomed to the private boardroom, but City Hall is not a private boardroom, and he can’t operate like that,” Walters said.

“They think I’m being a pest about it,” she said of her queries about whether the mayor’s informal meetings on various issues are completely within the law. “I don’t disagree it seems inconvenient, but I want us to be sure we are complying.”

The Brown Act, passed in 1953 and amended several times over the years, requires local governments and school boards to meet openly and with advance notification of time, place and subject matter, with few exceptions. After the law was strengthened last spring, City Atty. James K. Hahn wrote a memo on the changes. Walters said she has urged Hahn’s office to hold briefings on the law for all elected officials.

Walters said her office received an invitation to Monday’s private meeting in a telephone call from the mayor’s office late Friday afternoon. Monday morning, when Walters said she learned that those invited also included majorities of at least two City Council committees, she decided not to attend and instead wrote letters to Hahn and the mayor.

Hahn spokesman Ted Goldstein said the office was researching whether the meeting was within the bounds of the law. He added, however, that one attorney, whom he declined to identify, had “suggested” that the mayor’s office provide advance public notice of such meetings and open them.

Walters, who said her years on the Los Angeles Board of Education honed her consciousness of the public-meetings statutes, commented, “I hope (the city attorney) finds me 180 degrees wrong. . . . I just want us to be complying with the law.”

Noelia Rodriguez, the mayor’s press deputy, said the meeting, like others, was intended to include council members in the process of improving the city and its government.

“We want to be sure the council members have access to the information and to get their input,” Rodriguez said. She noted that federal Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, at Riordan’s urging, met with several key council members, including Walters, when Cisneros visited Los Angeles last month to talk about ways to revitalize impoverished neighborhoods.

Councilman Hernandez said he did not share Walters’ concerns.

“I think the mayor was trying to help us understand the economic development concepts,” Hernandez said. “Rita always brings up the Brown Act and then complains about being excluded.”

He added: “It makes it difficult for the mayor to understand how to work with people when they give him mixed signals.”