SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. It refers to lawsuits filed with the primary goal of silencing or intimidating individuals or organizations who have spoken out on matters of public concern. These lawsuits are often filed with little or no merit, and their purpose is to burden the defendant financially and emotionally, rather than to seek a genuine legal remedy.
For years, I have monitored and studied complaints about operations at the Torrance Airport and the number of individuals making those complaints. My first study, of a 14-month period in the late 1990s, was made when names and addresses were included in requests for public documents under the California Public Records Act (CPRA). That study revealed some very embarrassing information:
On 2/22/2025, I reported on my analysis of a sudden jump in the complaint rate for December 2024 (“Pulling Back the Curtain”). It revealed a huge difference between what the Casper system reports to the public and the actual number of individuals making airport complaints as listed in my CPRA response. The numbers reported to the public by the Casper system were overstated by 43% in October, by 100% in November and by a whopping 762% in December 2024.
In their response to two CPRA requests, the City included several data items that I did not specifically request, including a last name associated with each complaint. In good faith, I believed that any information released in response to a CPRA request was, in fact, PUBLIC INFORMATION. This allowed me to discover the discrepancies noted above.
Weeks after that report was made public, the City Clerk and City Attorney wrote me to claim that the last names I used in my analysis were "inadvertently" released and the names were "privileged, exempt from release and confidential." I submitted a CPRA request (W013563) for "Any communication (memo, letter, webpage, telephone conversation record, etc) that confers confidentiality or promises anonymity to persons making airport complaints. . ."
Although they were unable to produce any documentation that conferred this special status, they threatened me with legal action if I did not take steps to correct THEIR error by removing the names from any websites or places where my report had been posted.
On 4/12/2025, I received a letter from Rutan & Tucker, LLP, stating that they had been hired by the City of Torrance to take legal action if I did not comply with the City's demands. This was clearly a threat to file a SLAPP lawsuit.
It should be noted that on May 10, 1995, the California Attorney General issued Opinion No 94-903: "The names, addresses, and telephone numbers of persons who have filed noise complaints concerning the operation of a city airport are subject to public disclosure unless the city can establish in the particular circumstances that the public interest served by not making the information public clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure."
I responded to their letter with a clear statement of the facts. I have heard nothing further!