L.A. violated open meeting law with plan to clear homeless encampments, judge rules

"The city of Los Angeles violated the state's open meeting law when council members took up a plan to clear 9,800 homeless encampments behind closed doors, a judge ruled this week. In a 10-page decision, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin said the City Council ran afoul of the Ralph M. Brown Act by approving the encampment strategy during a Jan. 31, 2024, closed session."

"Kin, in his ruling, said the city is allowed under the Brown Act to confer with its attorneys in closed-door meetings to discuss legal strategy. "However, what the City cannot do under the Brown Act is formulate and approve policy decisions in a closed session outside the public eye merely because such decisions are in furtherance of a settlement agreement," Kin wrote."

"The ruling delivered a victory to the Los Angeles Community Action Network, which advocates for homeless residents and had sued the city over the closed-door deliberations. Lawyers for LA CAN have warned that the city's goal of removing 9,800 encampments over four years has created a quota system that could make sanitation workers more likely to violate the property rights of unhoused residents. Under the agreement, the city must reach its encampment removal target this summer."

Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin ruled that the Los Angeles City Council violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by approving an encampment removal strategy in a Jan. 31, 2024 closed session. The plan aims to clear 9,800 homeless encampments as part of compliance with a 2022 settlement with the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights. Kin clarified that closed sessions may address legal strategy with attorneys but may not be used to formulate or approve policy decisions outside public view. The ruling favored the Los Angeles Community Action Network and raised concerns that removal quotas could risk property-rights violations.

Read at Los Angeles Times