Battle Takes Form in SJC

San Juan Capistrano City Council majority members asked for an investigation of the minority members during the Nov. 5 council meeting. When the city attorney explained to the majority members what they were asking for, they realized they were voting to investigate themselves as well.

The controversy grew from a closed-session meeting in August when majority members banned newspapers from public property.

The OC Register reporter who sat in the audience throughout the meeting didn’t have an article about it in OCR the next day. She instead wrote that the council declared Nov. 8 to be “Michael Graves Day.” The failure of OCR to provide unbiased community news was a factor in the 2009 formation of an independent community newspaper, Community Common Sense, which recently expanded into Mission Viejo, http://www.ccsense.com/

An attendee wrote about the Nov. 5 meeting:

Majority City Council Bans Newspapers! – San Juan Capistrano
Posted on 08 November 2013.

Tuesday night I went to the City of San Juan Capistrano council meeting. Over one month ago, the Council went behind closed doors and decided to ban newspapers from city property because one of the newspapers (Community Common Sense) contained information unfavorable to the majority on the Council! This majority consists of Sam Allevato (who will be facing a recall), Mayor John Taylor, and Larry Kramer.

I was at Tuesday’s council meeting to support the remaining minority Councilmen, Derek Reeve and Roy Brynes, because the Council was going to take a vote on whether to investigate them (Reeve and Brynes) for wrongdoing on this matter. Unbelievable! After many of the residents voiced their concerns and urged the majority to drop the investigation and allow the newspapers back onto city property, the majority on the Council would have nothing to do with it. Even their City Attorney tried to tell Sam Allevato, Larry Kramer and Mayor John Taylor that they might possibly be opening up the investigation into their own wrongdoings.

Public meeting expert Terry Francke, General Counsel of CalAware, believes the only violations made were by the majority on the Council! http://octeapartyblog.com/2013/11/08/majority-city-council-bans-newspapers-san-juan-capistrano/

For additional information, go to: http://sanjuancapistrano.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/public-meetings-expert-the-city-council-may-have-violated-state-law