S. Pasadena Tax Panel Violated State Open Meetings Law

Already beset by scandals involving its police officers and a onetime assistant manager, South Pasadena is now embroiled in another controversy, this time over its acknowledged failure to obey the state’s open meetings law when an advisory committee on taxes met behind closed doors.

A divided South Pasadena City Council on Wednesday narrowly voted to place its existing 5% utility tax to the voters in a Dec. 3 special election based on the recommendation of that committee after the city attorney admitted that the panel met numerous times in violation of California’s open meetings law.

Council members, as they took the 3-2 vote, said the election could be scrapped if the city attorney determines that the violations of the law by the council-created Utility Tax Ad Hoc Committee would make the election result vulnerable to a successful legal challenge. The current utility tax expires next July.

City Atty. Francisco Leal said the committee had failed to follow the law by not providing public notice of the meetings and then denying the public the right to attend the sessions--including one Tuesday that brought the problem to light after reporters were denied access.

“This committee was not in compliance with the [Ralph M.] Brown Act and we ought to be frank about that,” Leal said.

He said it would require further legal research to determine the ramification for the council vote, but on its face the council could make its own decision.

The committee recommendation was approved after more than two hours of debate in which a council majority initially expressed concerns over a Dec. 3 ballot given the potential legal problems and seemed to be moving toward combining the vote with next March’s City Council election to save the $25,000 cost of an extra election.

But a speech by Ted Shaw, former mayor and committee chairman, turned the tide.

“Let the issue alone go directly to the public and let them have an opportunity to vote on it--nothing else--and allow them to look it straight on and not a number of other issues,” he said.

Mayor Dorothy Cohen said it was difficult to ignore such advice. “We are dependent on community volunteers to carry out this campaign” she said. “These same community volunteers are the ones telling us to do it in December.”

Cohen, council members Wallace Emory and Paul Zee voted for the December election, while council members Dick Richards and Harry Knapp dissented.