As mentioned briefly below, I attended and filmed a meeting of the Sunset-Vine BID on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. It was held in the Pickford Center of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Vine Street. I was required by the Academy’s security guard to produce my driver’s license and to allow him to record my name and DL number in order to gain entrance to the meeting. As long-time readers of this blog know, the Brown Act states that:
§54953.3 A member of the public shall not be required, as a condition to attendance at a meeting of a legislative body of a local agency, to register his or her name, to provide other information, to complete a questionnaire, or otherwise to fulfill any condition precedent to his or her attendance.
I discussed this with the ever-helpful Kerry Morrison after the meeting and she told me that she thought the law didn’t apply as the building was privately owned and the owner had a right to set conditions for entrance. This may be the case, although the language of the statute seems pretty plain to me, and it seems pretty plainly not to mention who it is that’s not allowed to do the requiring. If the legislature meant that the public body could not set conditions precedent to attendance but that the building owner could, one thinks they would have said so explicitly.
Furthermore, showing ID to get into the Pickford Center is not actually required by AMPAS on all occasions. I’ve attended many a pre-screening reception in there without being asked to show anything beyond an invite or, if I was the plus-one, just nothing at all. So what are the rules, then? If they can let in a bunch of industry-fringe-dwelling free-canapé-hounds like me and my neighbors without ID, why not members of the public who are there to do the public’s work?
And what did they discuss in there? If you haven’t yet devoured the entire 48 minute file we uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, perhaps you might enjoy the following clip. Watch and listen as Sarah Besley of the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance announces the imminent arrest of a suspect in the Vine Street Tree Vandalism Case, interrupted by board member Carol Massie wondering if it will be charged as a felony. Hear Sarah reply that the damage has to “hit 20 grand” before that’s possible and Kerry disclose that the city attorney is “very interested to help us” (charge it as a felony, I presume). Enjoy:
