Crestwood: Pleasant Hill Mayor and Council Members Violate California's Open Meetings Law and Federal Discrimination Statutes.

News Editors

PLEASANT HILL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 2003

Attorneys for Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc. today said they will pursue state and federal actions against the City of Pleasant Hill, as well as several individual members of the Pleasant Hill City Council, for illegal actions they took at recent Council meetings regarding Crestwood's permit to operate a mental health rehabilitation center in the city.

Against the strong advice of the City Attorney, the State Attorney General's office, the Contra Costa District Attorney's office, and more than a dozen legal experts in municipal and land use law -- and acknowledging that similar lawsuits have cost other municipalities millions of dollars in fines and legal costs -- the Council nonetheless voted last night to reconsider elements of the use permit it granted on August 4, 2003.

Crestwood said that the Council's actions not only violate the Ralph M. Brown Act -- California's open meetings law -- but also discriminate against healthcare consumers and the providers who serve them. These consumers and providers are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal Rehabilitation Act, and the state's Welfare and Institutions Code. The Council has also violated its own rules and procedures.

On August 4, the City Council approved Crestwood's application to open a mental health rehabilitation facility, known as the Healing Center, at 550 Patterson Boulevard. Last night, the Council voted 3 to 1 (with one abstention) to reconsider elements of that permit application at a meeting scheduled for October 20.

"After more than a year of consideration, the Council granted Crestwood a use permit. Its decision to reconsider is prohibited under both state and local law. In taking this hasty and, we believe, discriminatory action, the City Council exposes itself and the Pleasant Hill taxpayers to serious liability," said Patricia Curtin of Reed Smith Crosby Heafey, Crestwood's attorney. "This City Council, against the advice of its own three attorneys and the state and county's top legal officers, is not only denying Crestwood's vested rights and due process, it is also violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and other statutes by discriminating against the healthcare consumers who are waiting to be treated at the Crestwood Healing Center when it opens."

In addition to a detailed filing she made to the Council, Curtin noted that the Council also received detailed legal opinions from:

-- City Attorney Debra Margolis, who is past president of the Bay

Area City Attorneys Association

-- Pleasant Hill Special Counsel Natalie West, an expert in

municipal law. Ms. West was President of the City Attorneys

Department of the League of California Cities and a member of

the Board of Directors of the League of California Cities. Ms.

West also served as city attorney of Brentwood, Novato, and

Berkeley

-- Pleasant Hill Special Counsel Thomas Curry, former President

of the City Attorneys Department of the League of California

Cities. Mr. Curry has served as city attorney for Livermore,

served in the city attorney's offices in Walnut Creek, and

Hayward, and is city attorney for the cities of San Ramon and

Sonoma

-- Daniel Curtin, recipient of lifetime achievement awards for

his work in municipal law from the American Bar Association 

and the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and the

city attorney in Walnut Creek for 17 years. Mr. Curtin is

widely considered to be one of the country's leading experts

in municipal and land use law

-- Staff attorneys for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer 

who specialize in open meetings law issues

-- The chief counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers

Association

-- James L. Sepulveda, Senior Deputy District Attorney, Contra 

Costa County

Patricia Curtin noted that Ms. Margolis had also conferred with ten other city attorneys to confirm that her interpretation was correct.

The Brown Act specifically states that before a regular meeting, a legislative body must post an agenda containing a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting, with limited exceptions. The Pleasant Hill City Attorney advised the council that it did not meet the requirements for these exceptions and was therefore prohibited from placing the reconsideration item on its agenda.

"The Brown Act is designed to protect the public from politicians bending the law to suit their agendas and ensure that the public's business is conducted fairly," said Curtin. "If there is one law every local official in California should know, it's the Brown Act. Despite being advised time and again that they were violating this law, the Pleasant Hill City Council has taken a series of illegal actions that could have dire consequences for them, the City, and Pleasant Hill taxpayers."

In addition to violating the Brown Act, by placing the Crestwood permit on the agenda for reconsideration, the City Council violated its own rules and procedures, which state clearly that, "any Councilmember who voted with a majority on a question may move for reconsideration of that question at the same or next regular meeting." In fact, the Council's motion for reconsideration occurred four meetings after the final permit approval on August 4, 2003.

"I firmly believe that the City, by acting contrary to State law, its own rules and procedures, Crestwood's constitutional rights, and the strong legal advice of its City Attorney and its special counsel, is substantially liable," said Daniel Curtin of Bingham McCutchen, another attorney for Crestwood and a nationally recognized leading expert in the fields of municipal and land use law.

Crestwood filed an application for a use permit in September, 2002 to convert a former 166-bed convalescent health care facility into an 80-bed mental health center that will serve Contra Costa County residents exclusively. In April 2003 the city's Planning Commission denied Crestwood's application on a 4-3 vote. Crestwood appealed the Planning Commission's decision and on August 4, the Pleasant Hill City Council approved Crestwood's conditional use permit application on a vote of 3-1, with one abstention.

About Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc.

Crestwood Behavioral Health, California's leading provider of psychiatric and social rehabilitation services, was founded in 1968 as Crestwood Hospitals Inc., a convalescent care provider. Over the years, Crestwood has evolved to become a mental healthcare provider dedicated to offering a continuum of services that empower clients to live and succeed in their communities. Crestwood offers a range of mental health services, from traditional programs for people with chronic and persistent mental illness to alternative programs focused on helping people transition from residential rehabilitation to independent community living, and the full range of mental health services in between. With headquarters in Stockton, Calif., Crestwood serves more than 2,000 residents from 48 of California's 58 counties each year.