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Butts disputes D.A. claim city violated state law

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Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts has labeled as “patently ridiculous” a recent letter from the District Attorney’s office claiming that the city violated the state’s public meetings law when it first considered an exclusive agreement to negotiate a proposed Los Angeles Clippers Arena two years ago.

The DA’s office found the city gave inadequate notice under the Brown Act when it published the agenda for a June 15, 2017, City Council special meeting to consider an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with Murphy’s Bowl, the developer hoping to build the 18,500-seat Clippers Arena on vacant city land.

Butts noted that the DA’s office based its decision on a “narrow and highly technical reading” of the agenda’s 20-word description and failed to adequately consider accompanying materials that more fully explained the purpose of the special meeting.

“It makes no sense for the DA’s office to waste even a cup of coffee over something like this,” Butts said.  “If we were trying to sneak something by the citizens of Inglewood, why did the original agenda include a link to a three-page memo that lays out all the details of what was going to be discussed?”

Butts also said that the DA “completely ignored” the fact that when a Madison Square Garden Co. (MSG) Forum-backed group complained of the alleged agenda flaw in June 2017, the city immediately took steps to cure any potential problem by holding a second meeting within a month, a remedy provided under the Brown Act.

Butts said the city conducted two meetings—one in July 2017 and one in August—with an opportunity for any person attending to voice their opinion on the proposed ENA.

In a two-page letter dated May 17th that was sent to the members of  the Inglewood  City Council, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bjorn Dodd said that the June 2017 agenda did not comply with the Brown Act because it provided an insufficient description of the topic that was to be discussed.

In a recent court filing, MSG, which owns the Forum and has spent millions in an attempt to kill the Clippers proposal, reportedly admitted that it has been financing two lawsuits against the city.

“Had they contacted us, we would have provided the context and information necessary to see that the allegation was wrong-headed and that the city bent over backward to cure any perceived procedural defect by holding not one, but two subsequent Council meetings to discuss the project,” Butts said.

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