City of Santa Monica v. Stewart
| Decision Date | 28 January 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. B159223.,No. B164794.,No. B160037.,No. B162530.,B159223.,B164794.,B160037.,B162530. |
| Citation | 24 Cal.Rptr.3d 72,126 Cal.App.4th 43 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | CITY OF SANTA MONICA, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Maria STEWART, Defendant and Respondent, Douglas Heller, et al., Intervenors and Respondents. Rene Amy, Plaintiff, v. City of Pasadena, et al., Defendants, Cross-Complainants and Respondents, Paul Monsour, et al., Intervenors, Cross-Defendants and Appellants. |
Marsha Jones Moutrie, City Attorney, Jeanette Schachtner and Anthony P. Serritella, Deputy City Attorneys, for Plaintiff and Appellant City of Santa Monica.
Rutan & Tucker, LLP, John A. Ramirez, Joel D. Kuperberg and Michael R.W. Houston, Costa Mesa, for Defendant and Respondent Maria Stewart.
Strumwasser & Woocher, LLP, Fredric D. Woocher, Michael J. Strumwasser, Santa Monica, and Lea Rappaport Geller for Intervenors and Respondents Douglas Heller and The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
Strumwasser & Woocher, LLP, Fredric D. Woocher, Michael J. Strumwasser, Santa Monica, Lea Rappaport Geller and Samuel G. Goldstein, for Intervenors, Cross-defendants and Appellants Paul Monsour and Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
Michele Beal Bagneris, City Attorney, and Richards, Watson & Gershon, T. Peter Pierce and Craig S. Steele, Los Angeles, for Defendants, Cross-complainants and Respondents City of Pasadena, Jane Rodriguez, City Clerk, and William Bogaard, Mayor of the City of Pasadena.
Lawsuits were brought relating to the enforcement of initiatives approved by voters in Santa Monica and Pasadena. The initiatives sought to prevent city officials from receiving certain advantages from persons or entities who derived benefit from discretionary decisions made by those officials. This case involves consolidated appeals challenging four separate rulings in the two actions.
In the Santa Monica suit, the trial court dismissed the action as a nonjusticiable controversy. We agree with that ruling. Not only does Santa Monica lack the requisite standing to challenge the constitutionality of the initiative, the claims asserted by Santa Monica are not ripe for determination.
In the Pasadena suit, the trial court denied an anti-SLAPP motion brought by the initiative's sponsor to strike Pasadena's cross-complaint granted a summary judgment motion in favor of the city, and denied the initiative sponsor's motion for attorneys' fees under the private attorney general statute. We disagree with those rulings. The acts which led Pasadena to file a cross-complaint against the initiative sponsor arose out of protected First Amendment activities, and Pasadena was not able to demonstrate the requisite probability of success on the cross-complaint. Additionally, the perfection of the initiative sponsor's appeal from the denial of its anti-SLAPP motion divested the trial court of jurisdiction to consider Pasadena's summary judgment motion. Finally, the initiative sponsor was entitled to recover attorneys' fees under the private attorney general statute based on the necessity of its private enforcement action.
The Oaks Initiative (Initiative) is sponsored by the Oaks Project of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), a non-profit organization "dedicated to training community leaders to make democracy serve ordinary people." The Initiative is premised on a conviction that public benefits frequently are awarded on the basis of personal or campaign advantages, and not on merit or in the public good. Based on the premise that such awards undermine public confidence in democratically elected institutions, the Initiative declares, "there is a compelling state interest in reducing the corrupting influence of emoluments, gifts and prospective campaign contributions on the decisions of public officials in the management of public assets and franchises, and in the disposition of public funds." In general terms, the Initiative prohibits city officials from receiving campaign contributions, employment for compensation, or gifts or honoraria of more than $50 for a specified time after the end of their term of office from any person or entity who or which benefited financially (by more than $25,000 over a 12-month period) from the officials' discretionary decisions made while in office.
The Initiative contains four requirements:
(1) City officials who exercised their discretion to approve a "public benefit" (defined at Santa Monica initiative, § 2202, subd. (a)(1)-(7), and Pasadena initiative § 1703, subds. (a)(1)(-7)) cannot receive certain specified "personal or campaign advantages" (defined at § 2202, subd. (c), and § 1703, subd. (c), respectively), from the recipient of such a benefit (as defined at § 2202, subd. (b), and § 1705, subd. (a), respectively.) (Santa Monica initiative § 2203, subds. (a), (b); Pasadena initiative, § 1704, subds. (a), (b).)
(2) City officials must "practice due diligence to ascertain whether or not a benefit ... has been conferred, and to monitor personal or campaign advantages ... so that any such qualifying advantage received is returned forthwith, and no later than ten days after its receipt." (§ 2204, subd. (a), § 1705, subd. (a), respectively.)
(3) City officials "must provide, upon inquiry by any person, the names of all entities and persons known to them who respectively qualify as public benefit recipients...." (§ 2204, subd. (b); § 1705, subd. (b), respectively.)
(4) The city must provide written notice of the provisions of the Initiative and its limitations to any person or entity "applying or competing for any benefit enumerated" by the Initiative. (§ 2205; § 1706, respectively.)
Under the provisions of the Initiative, a civil action may be brought by any city resident "against a public official who receives a personal or campaign advantage in violation of" the Initiative, and a "knowing and willful violation" of the Initiative may also be prosecuted as a misdemeanor offense. (§ 2206, subds. (a)-(c); § 1701, subds. (a)-(c), respectively.)
The Initiative has been adopted, in virtually identical form and over the strenuous objections of numerous city officials, by voters in several California cities, including Santa Monica and Pasadena.1
THE SANTA MONICA LITIGATION:
In November 2000, almost 60% of Santa Monica voters approved the Initiative (also known as proposition LL), identified as the Taxpayer Protection Amendment of 2000 (sections 2200-2207) which, as enacted, amended the city's charter.
Santa Monica officials were displeased with the Initiative's approval. City Council members had campaigned vigorously against its passage, had authored the official ballot argument opposing it and, after being sued by the Initiative's proponents, ultimately were compelled by court order to include an argument in favor of the Initiative in the ballot pamphlet. The city officials had serious concerns about the constitutionality and enforceability of the Initiative. At the time, an appeal by the Southern California City of Vista from a pre-election challenge to the Initiative was pending in the Fourth District Court of Appeal. In January 2001, Santa Monica received permission to join Pasadena in an amicus curiae brief filed in the Vista litigation challenging the legality of the Initiative. The three cities, also joined by Claremont, argued the Initiative was unconstitutional on its face and urged its invalidation. The Court of Appeal determined the appeal was moot because a proposition contradictory to the Initiative had passed by an even greater margin of yes votes.2
In May 2001, Santa Monica City Attorney, Marsha Jones Moutrie, circulated a memorandum to the Santa Monica Mayor and City Council describing the background and purpose of the Initiative, her concerns about its constitutional validity, and the failed attempts to definitively adjudicate the Initiative's constitutionality. The City Attorney reiterated her belief that the Initiative was unconstitutional, and noted she had advised the City Clerk not to implement the Initiative until its constitutionality was resolved. Relying on the premise that it was "[f]aced with an initiative measure which has passed but been declared unconstitutional elsewhere," the City Attorney opined that Santa Monica "could: (1) refuse to implement the measure ... based upon the fact that a court has declared it unconstitutional; (2) implement the measure, ignoring the court decision, and thereby risk violating civil rights; (3) take no action on the measure and wait to be sued; or (4) initiate a lawsuit with the intention of obtaining a final appellate decision on the issue of constitutionality which would clarify the City's obligations." The City Attorney recommended filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Initiative.
In a status report prepared for a City Council meeting two weeks later, City Clerk Maria Stewart informed members that, based primarily on the City Attorney's advice, she was refusing to enforce the Initiative until its constitutionality was determined.
In June 2001, Santa Monica filed an action for declaratory relief and a petition for writ of mandate against its City Clerk. The complaint alleges the existence of an actual controversy between Santa Monica and the Clerk, acting in her official capacity as the official responsible for the implementation of the Initiative's provisions, regarding their respective rights and responsibilities. It alleges the Clerk claims the Initiative is unconstitutional and facially invalid, and refuses to implement it. The complaint seeks a judicial declaration as to whether the Initiative "is or is not unconstitutional or otherwise illegal and unenforceable."
In July 2001, Santa Monica resident Douglas Heller, the official proponent of the Initiative...
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