The city of Irvine spent $80,000 on legal fees and $40,000 to settle a case of social media censorship regarding former Mayor Christina Shea’s personal Facebook page where Ms. Shea posted on public policy issues and then blocked people who criticized her. By crossing the line on her personal page to city business, Shea’s blocking and deletion of posts critical of her was a clear case of First Amendment violations. Government can’t censor speech.
There are two problems here. Longtime Irvine residents know Shea cannot distinguish between a criticism and a threat (to her all criticism is a threat). The second, more serious issue, is why are Irvine taxpayers and the city involved here at all. This was Shea’s page in which she violated norms.
The OC Register reported the costs associated with the case above over the weekend. The Voice of OC posted this Thursday.
From the story:
Shea was first criticized for the blocking last June during the protests following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, when she said she would not lower or change the Irvine police department’s funding following emails from members of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We have been named one of the safest cities in America for 15 years in a row and I will not agree to reduce our public safety funding especially after seeing the violence we have endured as a nation this past week,” Shea said in a since deleted post on her Facebook page.
Over 150 people commented under the post, several of whom were blocked and had their comments deleted by Shea, who said their responses were defamatory. That kicked off several condemnations from protestors and organizations, including the Thurgood Marshall Bar Assn., Orange County’s only Black bar association.
One of those blocked was Lamar West, who decided to sue Shea for a violation of his First Amendment rights. West’s lawyers argued that despite the page functioning as Shea’s personal page, its public status and the fact that Shea regularly discussed public policy in posts meant that it functioned as a public forum.
The lawsuit defense costs fell on taxpayers due to West’s contention that the blocking was a government action, according to a press release on Irvine’s website, forcing the city to step in. West received almost $40,000, and the lawsuit cost the city an additional $80,000 in legal fees.
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In a phone call on Monday, Shea called the lawsuit “frivolous,” stating she’d never violated West’s rights and that if she had been reelected in November the city would have gone to court.
“I was not able to go and make that determination, but if I had stayed on council I would’ve continued the lawsuit to the end and even brought money into the coffers of the city,” Shea said.
Shea also took aim at her former colleagues Councilmen Mike Carroll, Anthony Kuo and newly-elected mayor Farrah Khan for their decision to waive the city’s legal privilege and publicly discuss the suit.
“They vacated privilege, which you never do…and they’re trying to put the blame on me when there was no blame even at the end of the settlement,” Shea said. “I really don’t have a lot of sense of maturity or experience with this new group. I would pull (council members) Tammy Kim and Larry Agran from that group; they seem to have a professional approach to local government.”
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I almost fell off my chair with Shea’s “compliment” to Larry Agran.
Shea is clearly at fault here. The city should seek reimbursement for legal fees and settlement costs associated with the case. It’s unclear if former city manager John Russo gave the go-ahead for this city-funded legal defense. Interim city manager Marianna Marysheva is a Russo loyalist.
There’s a new city council majority. It’s past time a search for a real city manager begins to rid City Hall of all of Russo’s team and stink.