Council exchange sparks complaint

Deepa Bharath

Following an emotional exchange at a City Council meeting this month,

a resident is complaining that city officials should have intervened

and quieted the debate.

But calling someone a bigot in City Council meetings may be

permitted when it is said in the context of a larger issue or in the

heat of the moment, Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

The mayor was responding to Balboa Peninsula resident Linda

Orozco’s complaint that Ridgeway should have intervened when Larry

Trahant, the executive director of Narconon, the company that runs a

group home on West Ocean Front, spoke up against Orozco during an

Aug. 10 city council meeting.

Orozco and Trahant butted heads over the issue of laws regulating

the city’s alcohol and drug rehabilitation homes. Orozco is one of a

number of neighbors of the Narconon recovery group home on the

peninsula who say the home plagues nearby residents with noise from

delivery trucks, industrial vacuum cleaners and loud tenants. They

have also complained about cigarette butts and cigarette smoke.

Ridgeway should have stopped Trahant when he called her a bigot,

Orozco said.

“That is not free speech,” she said. “The presiding officer of a

public meeting has the right to stop people when they resort to

name-calling. The mayor simply sat back and allowed this man to go on

and on and just blast away.”

Trahant refused comment on Thursday.

Trahant or any one else has a right to be angry at council

meetings, Ridgeway said.

“Anger even when directed at someone is protected speech,” he

said. “It may be wrong from a decorum point of view.”

Still, as mayor, he tries to balance decorum with free speech,

Ridgeway said.

Orozco said at Tuesday’s council meeting that messages referring

to “bloodletting” and “bloody knives” have been posted on a local

watchdog website, freenewport.com.

“These are death threats that have been directed against me,” she

said.

But it’s not his job as an elected official to protect

individuals, Ridgeway said.

“If she believes it’s a serious threat against her, she should

report it to the police, not come to a public forum and grandstand,”

he said.

Councilman Steve Bromberg said he agrees with the way Ridgeway

acted.

“This is an incredibly emotional issue for everyone,” he said. “I

don’t deny that [Trahant’s] comments were emotional.”

But the fact that Trahant stood up and said Orozco doesn’t like

recovering drug addicts is not offensive enough for the mayor to

remove Trahant from the council chambers, Bromberg said.

“If I were mayor, I wouldn’t have done anything different,” he

said.

No amount of ranting or threats will stop her from speaking up,

Orozco said.

“I’m not going to stop saying things,” she said. “This is an

important issue for me and my neighborhood, and no one is going to

scare me into silence.”

* DEEPA BHARATH is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at

deepa.bharath@latimes.com.