ARTICLES
January 2002 ARTICLES
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
It's Not Open Yet
Is Monrovia In Bed With Planned Parenthood?
By Maggie Garcia
"Four brave, working class, Hispanic members of our community have sought to have the court resolve their dispute over whether Planned Parenthood should be allowed to open an abortion facility right next to their backyards without a conditional use permit," stated a Monrovians to Stop Planned Parenthood news release. For more than a year, the citizens of Monrovia have been battling their city government over a proposed Planned Parenthood clinic. Last year, Planned Parenthood of Pasadena began building an abortion facility on the corner of Huntington Drive and Myrtle Avenue -- an area of Monrovia which is primarily poor and Latino. According to the plaintiffs' attorney, Greg Weiler, the city of Monrovia violated their own municipal code when they did not require the Planned Parenthood clinic to "apply for and obtain a conditional use permit from the city."
The four citizens mentioned in the press release -- José and Maria Pasillas (as one plaintiff), Sonja Estrada, Isidro Martinez and Ralph Ellsworth -- filed the lawsuit after they decided that the city of Monrovia would not listen to their concerns regarding the abortion clinic. The four plaintiffs decided that the only way they could get justice was by filing a lawsuit against the city of Monrovia and Planned Parenthood in order to keep out a clinic they say is riddled with problems. Greg Weiler said that the litigation is not about abortion but about land use. "My clients' civil rights were violated by the city of Monrovia," said Weiler. After they sued the city, Weiler said, the city, in a strange legal strategy, argued that the four plaintiffs were engaged in preventing the city from participating in the political process. The city filed a legal document stating that the citizens' lawsuit against the city is in reality a SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) and that the plaintiffs are abusing "the judicial process for political and retaliatory purposes." SLAPP suits are filed to silence political opponents. In their court papers, the city argues that the plaintiffs are "improperly attacking the City for its issuance of a routine and ministerial building permit." Monrovia then asked the court to require the plaintiffs to pay for attorney fees. "They know that my hard working Latino clients cannot afford attorney fees so they are trying to intimidate them this way," said Weiler.
According to the California Anti-SLAPP Project, a public interest group based in Oakland, SLAPP suits are very common in disputes. "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation," according to the Anti-SLAPP Project, "are civil complaints or counterclaims (against either an individual or an organization) in which the alleged injury was the result of petitioning or free speech activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. SLAPPs are often brought by corporations, real estate developers, or government officials and entities against individuals who oppose them on public issues. Typically, SLAPPs are based on ordinary civil tort claims such as defamation, conspiracy, and interference with prospective economic advantage." While most SLAPPs are legally merit-less, they effectively achieve their principal purpose: to chill public debate on specific issues." Since defending oneself against a SLAPP suit requires money, time, and legal resources, it ends up diverting a defendant's attention away from the public issue in question.
Attorney Katie Short of the Life Legal Defense Association said the SLAPP motion brought against the plaintiffs by the city of Monrovia is, indeed, "merit-less." Short said that often in land-use disputes "developers come in, go to the city council, meet with the members of the council and, often activists will speak out against the developer. The developer will then file a SLAPP suit against the activists." Short believes that SLAPP suits often infringe on a citizen's First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, and so effectively cut off the only means they have to challenge what a city does.
Short noted that the SLAPP motion is "tethering on mootness because of the eminent domain proceedings that the city of Monrovia is proposing." The city's redevelopment agency has proposed buying the parcel on which the clinic sits, as well as adjacent parcels, in order to build a commercial site.
The city's attorney, Michael Colantuono, denied that the SLAPP motion the city filed was about stifling opposing views. "We have been discussing this with MAPP (Monrovians Against Planned Parenthood) for many, many months. We want to be a neutral referee in this, we aren't taking sides," he said. Colatuono said that the city had filed the SLAPP motion after the plaintiffs decided to seek damages and attorney fees in their lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the city of Monrovia and Planned Parenthood violated the plaintiffs civil rights by not going through all of the channels required by state law prior to building the abortion clinic. Colatuono said that the city feels it "must defend the treasury" and the only recourse they have is to file the SLAPP motion. He emphasized that if the plaintiffs were willing to drop their demand for damages and attorney fees, the city will withdraw the SLAPP motion.
Colantuono agreed that the case might be moot because the city is looking into buying the parcel of land where the clinic stands as well as a nearby gasoline station. "We've had our eye on that gasoline station for 20 years but it was always too expensive," he stated. Colantuono said that if the city buys the parcel from Planned Parenthood the clinic may very well relocate somewhere else, "perhaps to another city." He said that if Planned Parenthood decides to build in Monrovia again, the city would look at the situation very carefully in conjunction with input from MAPP.
At the heart of the dispute is the fact that the four plaintiffs contend that the city of Monrovia ignores their concerns about the adverse affects an abortion clinic will have on their working class Latino neighborhood. According to a "Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction" filed by the Los Angeles County department of health, the Planned Parenthood clinic, which had until recently been housed free of charge in a county health department building in Monrovia, had numerous health and safety violations. Some of these violations include clinic employees who did not have proper background or supervision. The ten-page document includes demands that the county has made on Planned Parenthood. Some of these demands include: the recruitment of "qualified personnel" and the provision of an "initial orientation of new employees"; a "continuing in-service program and supervision designed to improve patient services and employee efficiency"; and "training in infection control and emergency procedures consistent with the type of clinic and services provided."
In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that, in addition to the adverse effect on their neighborhood which the clinic poses, the city of Monrovia ignored its own municipal code when it granted a parking variance to the clinic. They say that the clinic will bring more congestion to their community, which is already teeming with auto wrecking yards and light industry. In addition to illegally granting the parking variance, the city, the plaintiffs say, did not force Planned Parenthood to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, which is required of all new buildings.
At a November 28 informational meeting, John O'Neill, president of Monrovians Against Planned Parenthood, told the audience that the city of Monrovia has more than accommodated Planned Parenthood in securing the permit necessary to build the clinic. "The city made it so that Planned Parenthood could avoid a public hearing," said O'Neill. "Our mayor, Lara Blakely is friends with Beth Calleton, the executive director of Pasadena Planned Parenthood," he noted. In spite of the friendship between the mayor of Monrovia and Planned Parenthood's executive director, O'Neill said that he is hopeful that the clinic will not open in Monrovia. "It's not open yet" he told the audience while outlining the city's upcoming eminent domain proceeding on the parcel of land owned by Planned Parenthood. "If the land is sold to the city," he said, "Planned Parenthood has already said that they don't want to build again in Monrovia."
The website for Monrovians against Planned Parenthood is: www.mapconnect.org