In a 3-2 decision May 6, The Fullerton City Council confirmed their decision to limit publication distribution within city facilities. The lone exception being a community rack at the back of The Fullerton Public Library.
Residents came in support with flyers calling for a reversal of the decision that was passed April 1. Questions regarding censorship and first amendment rights plagued the meeting, alongside accessibility concerns regarding Fullerton’s disabled community.
Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Shana Charles and Councilman Ahmad Zahara voted against implementing the policy, citing the importance of community voices and the right to easily access information.
“I want to live in a city where our newspapers are in our city halls and everywhere else,” Charles said during her rebuttal.
“This is a fundamental right issue. This is what we as immigrants — or native born — believe, that this is our right, to access information. Whether we like that information — the news or the journalism — this is not the case,” Zahra said.
He also questioned the morality of such a policy, stating “We know that there have been cases — drafted by attorneys based on policies at the time — that were not unconstitutional. We’ve seen them in segregated housing policies that discriminated against certain members of our community.”
“Just because something is not unconstitutional today, doesn’t make it right. It may be proven otherwise in the future,” he continued. “Are we going to uphold and facilitate and create access to our local press, to encourage our local journalists to pursue truth? Or are we going to play this game and try to limit access.”
Mayor Fred Jung and Councilman Nick Dunlap did not elaborate on their decision. Councilwoman Jaime Valencia argued this policy favored neutrality within the city.
“I just would like to state that this isn’t because our city did not have an ordinance, so therefore anyone and everybody could publish whatever they wanted to and put whatever they wanted to within our city hall, which is a non-partisan building,” she said during the May 6 meeting.
“We represent the whole city […] and it would be very bad if we limit this or allow everybody because everybody’s feelings would get hurt or people would get upset or mad.” she continued. “This is for city matters and non-partisan issues.”
The policy prohibits materials not produced by the government from city facilities except in the library. Similar publication restrictions were implemented in Irvine and Newport Beach.
This policy to ban non-governmental publications in city buildings was proposed after an attorney representing a local blog sent a letter to the City Manager saying they wanted a rack for its (currently non-existent) print newspaper in the city hall.
Attorney letter to Fullerton CM
Dear Mr. Levitt:
I hope this finds you well. I am writing to you on behalf of my client, Fullerton’s Future, who’s in the process of launching a new newspaper publication to serve the residents of Fullerton. As part of the marketing and distribution efforts, my client seeks to place a newspaper rack in the lobby of City Hall, similar to the arrangements that have been made with other local newspapers. We respectfully request the City Council grant approval for my Client to install a newspaper rack in the lobby of City Hall. My Client has secured a financial commitment from a local businessman for a significant amount of private financing to launch this new business endeavor committed to contributing to the local community by providing important local news, restaurant reviews, business advertisements, and information that reflects the diverse interests of our city’s residents and their needs for alternative news sources. In addition, an application to form a new 501-c4 will soon be filed with the IRS for this venture. Please let me know if there are any specific procedures or requirements that need to be followed to facilitate this request or if the Council has any preferences regarding the placement of such a news rack at City Hall. We are eager to comply with any guidelines you may have.
Thank you for your time and consideration and we look forward to your response.
Sincerely, Kelly Aviles
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The letter was also posted on the FFFF blog with the following comment:
“Of course deploying an attorney suggests we mean business and might have to use legal redress if our request were to be denied. Why? Because the City currently permits the distorted and warped Fullerton Observer access to City premises.”
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City officials argued the ban would ensure neutrality within government buildings and public spaces.
During the May 6 meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Shana Charles argued for the blog’s right to public access, despite being frequently targeted within the blog itself.
“We two (Councilmember Ahmad Zahra) are the ones up here saying ‘we absolutely are fighting for that blog’s right to be in our city hall — and to be in every public building — if that’s what they want to do, along with the other papers,” stated Mayor Protem Charles.
The council in a 3-2 vote by the majority Jung, Valencia and Dunlap voted to keep the new policy in place.
This report has been updated with correction by reader Matt Leslie.
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Categories: Local Government, Local News
“This policy was proposed after a local blog said they wanted a rack for their non-existent print newspaper in the city hall or they would sue the city.” I don’t think I ever saw a legal threat from the FFFF blog. They did send a letter to the city inquiring about the possibility of placing their proposed publication in city facilities, but that letter contained no legal threat that I could see. Where did they threaten to sue the city?
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ED Response: Thank you Matt for catching that. You are absolutely correct. The letter to City Manager Levitt from Attorney Aviles did not threaten a lawsuit. We got the letter from the FFFF post and it was the FFFF comment at the end of the letter that threatened lawsuit (see the attorney’s letter below and the FFFF comment). Interesting to note that although the Observer, the CSUF Titan, Mayor Protem Charles and Councilmember Zahra and the majority of public commentors have no problem granting the blog’s non-existent paper space in city buildings – the blog itself rejoiced that the council majority -Jung, Valencia, and Dunlap- voted in favor of the ban – and that major blog writer Ferguson has been the lone public commentor in favor of the ban.
Attorney letter to Fullerton CM
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Dear Mr. Levitt:
I hope this finds you well. I am writing to you on behalf of my client, Fullerton’s Future, who’s in the process of launching a new newspaper publication to serve the residents of Fullerton. As part of the marketing and distribution efforts, my client seeks to place a newspaper rack in the lobby of City Hall, similar to the arrangements that have been made with other local newspapers.
We respectfully request the City Council grant approval for my Client to install a newspaper rack in the lobby of City Hall. My Client has secured a financial commitment from a local businessman for a significant amount of private financing to launch this new business endeavor committed to contributing to the local community by providing important local news, restaurant reviews, business advertisements, and information that reflects the diverse interests of our city’s residents and their needs for alternative news sources. In addition, an application to form a new 501-c4 will soon be filed with the IRS for this venture.
Please let me know if there are any specific procedures or requirements that need to be followed to facilitate this request or if the Council has any preferences regarding the placement of such a news rack at City Hall. We are eager to comply with any guidelines you may have.
Thank you for your time and consideration and we look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Kelly Aviles
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FFFF comment
“Of course deploying an attorney suggests we mean business and might have to use legal redress if our request were to be denied. Why? Because the City currently permits the distorted and warped Fullerton Observer access to City premises.”
Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I thought I heard Mr. Ferguson say during the first council meeting wherein this item was considered that he was not currently involved with the FFFF blog.
How can you know? Everyone posts under a pseudonym at Fiends for Fullerton’s Failure. Except me.
Maybe he’s not “involved with” the blog and it’s more of a fiends with benefits situation.
I can tell you the pseudonym I remember for Josh Ferguson is actively commenting and posting articles. But since there is no expectation of valid identities on their site I will not publicly call it out.
Thanks for calling me a lair John, but alas it is you who is telling falsehoods.
Matt is correct, I left the site in 2021 even if I remain friends with people long affiliated with it. You might not be familiar with the concept.
When I took over the blog in 2016 Dave Curlee, Sean Paden, and myself posted under our real names. You’ll even find comments under my real name because, *shocker*, I use my real name. The “pseudonym you remember” wasn’t me but of course I’d expect you to lie for clout by pretending to have knowledge of things you know nothing about.
Clout? Okay.
I didn’t call anyone a liar. I stated what I remember. You and your “friends” can clear all this up by publishing a mapping of pseudonyms to your actual names.
You’re posting on a site that uses “Staff” to obscure identities, not even unique pseudonyms, and you want FFFF to map their contributors. Adorable.
Editor Saskia Kennedy response: The Fullerton observer uses staff when more than two writers contribute to an article or when more than 60% of the text comes from the city agenda, supplementals, and council people.
Josh – I have never met John but agree with him. John didn’t call you a liar – he merely pointed out that since writer names on the blog are obscured – you may very well be writing under one of the monikers – who would know? Many years ago the Observer was given a list of the actual writers behind each pretend name. You were on that list.
Sharon, how do you know that you’ve never met “john?” If that’s his actual name he could be anyone named john.
Matt – funny that is what you choose to comment on. Although I don’t know anyone named John – I would certainly like to know the John who frequently posts such reasonable comments on the Observer website.
Hey Ed, I haven’t written for FFFF since 2021 so maybe get your facts straight instead of spreading more misinformation. The statement “and that major blog writer Ferguson has been the lone public commentor (sic) in favor of the ban.” implies I still write for them and I do not.
I know the internet can be tricky but if you go to FFFF and click my name in the sidebar, you’ll see that the most recent post is from July of 2021 titled “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”.
Or ask Saskia since I told her as much a few weeks ago. And Sharon wonders why I told you to talk to my attorney *AFTER* you hired a tech nenard to regurgitate the stupidity of the City’s own tech nenard.
Ed Response: The Observer asked for you to comment after we received the city press release – you told the paper to talk to your lawyer. The paper then asked a cyber expert to look over the work of the city cyber expert. That expert agreed with the city expert that you had signed on to the city dropbox from the work computer using a VPN but which left a trace to your account. All that said – the majority of Observers felt it was a waste of city money to sue you for taking city attorney files with your name on them after being given the password to the entire dropbox – which our expert also pointed out was sloppy security breach and the city’s failure. You did not “hack” into the city website and deserved to win that case.
BTW – here are the FACTS that Sharon lied about at Council AND you two are lying about here.
On October 24th, 2019, the City of Fullerton filed a lawsuit. That same day this publication published the City’s biased, and frankly lie of a press release uncritically.
It’s in your archives here;
https://fullertonobserver.com/2019/10/24/fullerton-files-lawsuit-against-local-blog/
THAT is why I told Jesse to talk my attorney. This rag had proven itself to be nothing but a mouthpiece for City Hall BEFORE anybody bothered to reach out.
Sharon knows this and has known this for years. I’ve said it to her face. I said it to Jesse’s face when he was with the paper. Saskia as well, less than a month ago.
But sure, keep peddling the same tired narratives.