Remembering Bill Brand, a committed public servant
I first met Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand by email. “Enjoyed your piece in [Daily Breeze] today. Boy, do I have a story for you,” he wrote on June 2, 2019. “Myself, my campaign and volunteer treasurer were ‘personally’ sued in a private enforcement action for FPPC violations by two residents who after 17 months, 11 depositions, 2 mandatory settlement conferences and a 5-day trial in downtown L.A. were labeled ‘shills’ for a ‘sham’ lawsuit by Judge Mackay.”
My column that day was about the Fair Political Practices Commission’s abusive practice of levying wildly high fines against citizens who foolishly engage in election-related First Amendment activity without an attorney to advise them on the alligator-occupied moats surrounding political campaigns in California.
I reported on the FPPC’s $3,000 penalty against a group of Redondo Beach residents who opposed a 2015 ballot measure related to a development project. Redondo Residents for Responsible Revitalization distributed about 4,000 flyers, two sets of door hangers and a “mass mailing,” but something related to the advertising disclaimer wasn’t right. Questioned about this enforcement action by one of the commissioners, then-chief of the enforcement division Galena West acknowledged that the group was “inexperienced,” but insisted that the fine was justified. “They never asked for advice,” she said.
I also reported that the FPPC was threatening me with $55,000 in fines over innocent paperwork errors made six years earlier, when I was a first-time state candidate in a special election for the Assembly. I did ask for advice, but it didn’t matter to them.
“I can relate to your predicament,” Bill wrote to me in his email. “Feel free to call me anytime, but we may meet at your hearing. Several of us are thinking of attending on the 19th.”
And he did attend. Along with Redondo Beach City Council Member Nils Nehrenheim, Mayor Bill Brand came to the administrative law hearing in downtown L.A. to show his support for someone he didn’t even know. He walked up to the table where the FPPC lawyers were seated, barely visible behind their high stacks of three-ring binders, and told them they were treating a beginner candidate like a murder suspect. “What are you doing?” he asked.
It was characteristic of
Bill’s moral compass and personal courage to call them out while he was still under FPPC scrutiny himself. It was 2021 before the FPPC finally closed its investigation into Bill and his Redondo Beach colleagues, and only after the Redondo team had won an appellate court judgment upholding the victory in Judge Mackay’s court.
“Just wanted to send this email along,” wrote Bill’s friend and attorney Steve Colin in April 2021. “The FPPC decided to close the FPPC violations case against Bill Brand and Co. The prosecutor who was handling the case for quite a while was transferred to Los Angeles, in the Dept. of Public Health. No one said anything until I starting calling the FPPC and I sent it a copy of the Appeal Court decision.”
If you’re interested in how my own case turned out, all the documents are posted at ReformPoliticalReform.com. It would be a fitting tribute to Bill Brand if the Legislature overhauled the totally unaccountable FPPC and put a stop to its selectively harsh enforcement of a 1974 law that was supposed to level the playing field by limiting the ability of the powerful to dominate elections, but has evolved into a politicized racket to protect the powerful against challenges from anybody else.
Bill’s efforts to stop Sacramento’s takeover of local zoning decisions led to his work on the OurNeighborhoodVoices.com initiative, backed by a bipartisan coalition of local leaders. And he fought to have the AES power plant in Redondo Beach shut down and turned into a park. It did shut down in January, but sadly it’s slated to become a hyperdense development, forced on the community with the “Builder’s Remedy” as a penalty for not agreeing to further densify the already dense city.
On Friday, Bill lost his battle with cancer and we all lost one of California’s finest public servants and leaders. Deepest condolences to his wife Deirdre and family, and to all who had the privilege of calling him a friend.
Write Susan@SusanShelley. com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley