Fullerton revisits, upholds newspaper ban at City Hall and other public buildings
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A new policy that prohibits the distribution of community newspapers at Fullerton City Hall has been in place for a month — and continues to spark debate over free speech.
Fullerton Councilwoman Shana Charles initially voted in support of the policy on April 1, but only after pushing to make the city’s public library a “community news space” where publications like the Fullerton Observer continue to be distributed.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council, Charles sought to reverse course and have the overall policy rescinded in light of what she called “new information.”
During the initial debate, the city attorney’s office suggested that similar policies existed in Newport Beach and Irvine. After Charles later scrutinized the claim, she felt compelled to revisit the news rack ban.
“I went to Irvine City Hall, myself, and found out that, while they had a resolution that was considered to be content neutral, it was not actually, in effect,” Charles said. “They weren’t actually implementing it. Community newspapers were allowed to be there.”
Fullerton City Council approved a new policy that removes newspapers from City Hall while designating a community news space at its main library.
She added that in Newport Beach, a public library policy deals with material acquisitions and argued that it didn’t have much, if anything, in common with Fullerton’s policy.
“We would be enacting a new policy, something that nobody else in this county is doing, possibly nationwide,” Charles said. “I just don’t think it makes any sense for us to try and suppress community newspapers.”
When asked by TimesOC, Newport Beach spokesperson John Pope noted that the city allows newspapers to be distributed as the Daily Pilot and NB Independent stacks are commonly found at its facilities.
Irvine spokesperson Melissa Haley told TimesOC that the city’s policy is very much in effect.
“We are aware that unsolicited deliveries sometimes occur, such as the Irvine World News,” she said. “When that happens, staff remove the papers. They are not placed on display.”
The policy debate in Fullerton traces back to an email sent by attorney Kelly Aviles to city officials on Jan. 13 requesting a news rack at City Hall for a forthcoming print edition of the Friends for Fullerton’s Future Blog. (Aviles also provides outside counsel to the Los Angeles Times.)
Over the years, the Observer and the Daily Titan, a Cal State Fullerton student newspaper, have been distributed in the lobby at City Hall.
Instead of granting Fullerton’s Future a future news rack, the Fullerton City Council voted 4-1 to ban all community newspapers from public facilities except the public library.
The policy change continued to spark criticism at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“The answer to speech you don’t like is more speech, and the answer to press you don’t like is more press,” said Jodi Balma, a Fullerton College political science professor. “I don’t know why we would limit access. Fullerton is blessed to be one of the only communities that has local journalism.”
Josh Ferguson, a former Fullerton’s Future blogger Fullerton unsuccessfully sued in 2019 over the publication of secret files it disclosed, countered that the policy was soundly in accordance with the 1st Amendment.
“Whether or not the city attorney or city manager…was correct about something that happened in Irvine is irrelevant to the case at hand,” he said. “Is the policy content neutral? Yes, it is.”
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In the past, news rack bans at public buildings in Orange County have been subject to legal challenges.
Community Common Sense sued San Juan Capistrano in 2013 when council members secretively voted to bar all newspapers from racks in front of its city hall and other public buildings.
The closed session vote came just days after Community Common Sense began distributing its newspaper at public facilities.
A settlement the following year allowed Community Common Sense to distribute its newspaper inside the city’s Community Center reading room and on public sidewalk racks.
In 2017, Irvine settled a lawsuit for $350,000 over Irvine Community News & Views, which was banned by city officials from distribution at its city hall as a “political” publication that many have linked to politician Larry Agran.
David Loy, the First Amendment Coalition’s legal director, opposes Fullerton’s policy change, even if it is allowed to regulate what is distributed inside its buildings in a content neutral manner.
“It’s not clear to me that what the city did is unconstitutional as a matter of 1st Amendment doctrine and case law,” he said. “As a matter of public policy, I wish they had kept their previous practice of allowing the public access to a diversity of community viewpoints and community news.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting, the First Amendment Coalition sent a letter to city officials that argued the news rack ban sends the message, whether intended or not, that Fullerton is hostile to the free press and “discourages criticism of its policies.” It cited the Ferguson case as a chief reason not to restrict access.
The letter warned the city could be exposed to litigation if the ban was motivated by dislike of news coverage by any outlet or reporter.
Councilmember Ahmad Zahra, who was the sole vote against the policy last month, believed the ban to be retaliatory against the Observer by the council majority comprised of Mayor Fred Jung, Councilmember Jaime Valencia and Councilmember Nick Dunlap.
“If we are sued, [the] truth could come out in all kinds of subpoenas and discoveries,” he said. “I hope that we can avoid all this by rescinding this order tonight.”
A vote to do so failed by a 3-2 vote with Zahra and Charles supporting the move.
Only Valencia spoke on the issue in support of keeping the ban in place.
“Our city did not have an ordinance,” she said. “Anybody and everybody could publish whatever they wanted to and put whatever they wanted to within our city hall, which is a non-partisan building.”
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