Council Maverick to Appear on Cable Shows

Maverick La Puente Councilwoman Sally Fallon is scheduled to tape two cable access television shows today with other outspoken elected officials from throughout the Los Angeles area.

Sponsored by the nonprofit group Citizens Protection Alliance, “Full Disclosure: The News Behind the News” airs on 32 cable systems throughout Southern California and highlights local civic issues, said Leslie Dutton, host and producer of the show, which is taped in Eagle Rock.

As of Wednesday, no episode titles had been chosen for the shows in which Fallon will appear, but the two-part series will discuss “what it is like to be a dissenter on a local government,” Dutton said.

Fallon--who has been censured several times during her tumultuous term--was invited to the program to discuss her role on the City Council.

Frequently voting against her fellow council members, Fallon raises questions at council meetings that opponents say cause the proceedings to drag into the early morning.

“When somebody is elected, they get in there and ask questions, and all of a sudden they’re perceived as not playing ball,” said Barbara Blinderman, a Santa Monica attorney who gathered today’s panel on behalf of the California First Amendment Coalition.

The panel will consist of four women officials from Hawthorne to the San Gabriel Valley who are considered dissenters on their boards and councils. Though the guests will all be women, Blinderman said she doesn’t consider in-house bickering to be a women’s problem.

“It’s a dissenter’s problem, but the administration does tend to be an old-boy network,” Blinderman said. “There are men who are [new to] the establishment who are dissenters. But they can usually handle it better because they know the football lingo.”

The other guests are Judy Dunlap of the Inglewood City Council, former Alta Loma School District trustee Carolyn Preschern and Jenny Lambert of the Hawthorne City Council.