Date
April 17, 2006
Contact
Catherine Doyle
323-931-8318 (o)
323-301-5730 (cell)
Eric Kleiman
717-939-3231
In Defense of Animals
131 Camino Alto
Mill Valley
CA 94941
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
LA City Council Hearing on Zoo Elephant Exhibit Expansion Violated Brown Act, Complaint to District Attorney Charges
Los Angeles, Calif.—A Los Angeles City Council Joint Committee has violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, in its consideration of the Los Angeles Zoo’s $37.8 million taxpayer-funded proposal to expand its elephant exhibit, charges a complaint filed today with the District Attorney’s office by In Defense of Animals and the Los Angeles Alliance for Elephants.
Specifically, the complaint asks for an investigation of the actions of the Arts, Parks and Recreation and Budget and Finance Joint Committee, which held a Special Meeting on April 10, 2006 and endorsed the publicly-funded zoo expansion project on a 5-1 vote, and its Co-chair Tom LaBonge.
The complaint alleges that LaBonge, who has received over $18,000 in political contributions from zoo-affiliated individuals and their family members, sought to limit public debate on the controversial and costly expansion plan by providing zoo expansion proponents with unfair advantage through apparent secret advance notice of the meeting and lengthy official testimony at the meeting. Expansion opponents, by contrast, received less than one business day’s notice of the hearing and, during the hearing, their remarks were limited to one or two minutes during public comment period.
“The Joint Committee failed utterly to hold a full, fair and meaningful hearing as required by the Brown Act when it voted to recommend to the Mayor and the full City Council that this expensive, taxpayer-funded proposal be approved,” the complaint alleged. “Mr. LaBonge’s political maneuverings have given an unfair advantage to the proponents of this publicly-funded zoo expansion project, limited public input and prevented a full and fair hearing on this publicly-funded proposal, which numerous experts and both of the city’s daily newspapers have called wasteful and inadequate.”
The proposal is scheduled for a full City Council vote on April 19, one day before the Mayor’s budget is released and the city’s funding shortages become apparent. The Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News and numerous elephant experts have urged the City Council to vote against it.
“This proposal to create a 3-acre exhibit for elephants, who require far larger spaces for physical and psychological health, is wasteful and inadequate,” said Les Schobert, former General Curator of the Los Angeles Zoo and one of the experts whose comments were confined to public time at the Special Meeting. “We should not stick the taxpayers of Los Angeles with a bill for an elephant exhibit that will be outdated before it opens its doors.”
A copy of the complaint was also sent to City Council President Eric Garcetti. In Defense of Animals is an international animal rescue and protection organization based in Mill Valley, California. For more information about IDA’s elephant campaign, see www.helpelephants.com.