Pasadena City Council Dissects Disclosure

A Pasadena City Council Meeting (Photo – ColoradoBlvd.net).

For the novice in such matters, the Pasadena City Council’s short-but-sweet, Monday-night meeting provided a lesson in the nuances of disclosure, where a city council member’s most casual investigation could have unintended consequences.

By Garrett Rowlan

The issue stemmed from a presentation by City Attorney Michelle Bagneris regarding the necessity to have objectivity in regard to what are called “quasi-judicial decisions,” that is, decisions that are not legislative and policy-based in nature, but are due-process, often involving land-use, developmental decisions.

Ms. Bagneris made the initial distinction between conflict of interest and bias, the latter not a matter of financial gain but where one’s impartiality might be affected by personal issues. This is where the complications arose.  What meets the threshold for being a disclosable encounter or experience?

Obviously, a developer taking a council member to lunch prior to a property-development decision would constitute a potential source of bias prior to a vote, but what if a council member decided to do a self-guided tour of a site? One council member asked, would that be a cause for disclosure? The slippery slope of what would constitute bias was evident, and troublesome. Mayor Terry Tornek compared the relative innocent of a “drive-by” to a staff report, something merely informative. If one were to drive to the site, Tornek mused, would it be more proper that the observer stay in their car? The question was humorous, facetious, yet with an underlining concern, suggesting the possibility of some kind of Orwellian doublethink, where a city council member might feel obliged to perform some mental gymnastics to disregard some casual observation lest it become a disclosable encounter, even of the most nebulous kind. One council member even made a post hoc disclosure of an issue already decided, then admitted it was too late.

In other business, the council designated two Pasadena houses as historical landmarks, per recommendations of the Historic Preservation society. It was not disclosed if any of the council members had visited the sites beforehand.