Due process should have played a role
The principle that the government cannot take private property without due process of law has been part of our legal system since Magna Carta (1215).
It is spelled out very clearly in the U.S. Constitution (14th Amendment) and the California Constitution. It is taught in every law school Constitutional Law class.
Why then did the Glendale city attorney allow the council to take sums of money from Glendale residents equal to many times most people’s annual income without due process of law?
The tree-trimming ordinance is illegal because it violates the U.S. and California constitutions and probably state legislation, too. The Collards (“Pruning leaves a fine mess,” Oct. 19) and John Oppenheim (“Pruning law is just a fundraiser for the city,” Community Commentary, Wednesday) will find a lawyer (not me because I’ve retired and my health will not let me litigate), go into court and win.
Because the tree-trimming ordinance is so patently offensive to the law, the judge will strike down the ordinance and may well require Glendale to pay the Collards’ and Oppenheim’s legal fees and maybe even damages.
Any competent city attorney would see this coming and would immediately tell his or her client, the City Council, that the ordinance was defective and why. Glendale’s city attorney didn’t do this, at least not publicly. Why? Is he completely incompetent? Or did someone in city government tell him to keep his mouth shut? Not being in city government, I have no way of knowing the answer to these questions.
The Collards and Oppenheim have suffered tremendous anxiety and distress, but I am confident they will never have to pay a penny of their fines. It’s the city that will have to pay and have to explain why it allowed something as stupidly and cruelly illegal as the tree-trimming ordinance to be passed into law. Everyone in Glendale is waiting to hear the city’s answer.
STANTON J. PRICE
Glendale
Applicants’ property rights also count
Given the ongoing debate pertaining to the Design Review Board and the proposed view ordinance, and due to my family’s firsthand experience with delusional neighbors and neighborhood associations, it is finally time for homeowners whose properties are subjects of such controversy to express their opinions and preserve their property rights.
