LOS ALAMITOS - The Los Alamitos City Council voted unanimously yesterday to settle a lawsuit over its censorship of public-access television programming last year. The city agreed to adopt new policies to protect free speech at Los Alamitos Television Corporation, whose LATV Channel 3 is available to Time Warner customers in Los Alamitos and Rossmoor.

The ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP filed a free-speech case February 6 on behalf of Alan Katz, whose arts and politics series had an episode ordered off the air.

'With ever-increasing media consolidation, it is harder and harder for individuals to have any access to television and radio. Stations like LATV-3 are a vital outlet for the voices of the public,' said Peter Eliasberg, the ACLU/SC's Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights. 'This agreement keeps real local television alive in Los Alamitos.'

The new policies are meant to provide fair access to prime time slots and ensure programming is not removed from the air without careful review.

'Producers' shows will air when requested and not be rearranged to suit the city's point of view,' said Katz, who produces 'OC's West End,' an arts and politics program that has aired since February 2005.

The censorship that led to the lawsuit occurred after the City Council fired the independent board of directors who manage the Los Alamitos Television Corporation and took control of the nonprofit station. Katz taped an episode of his series in September 2006 with former LATV board members. The show aired twice before the city manager — who admitted she had not seen the episode — ordered it off the air, citing unspecified 'complaints' about its content. The program was later returned to the air, then pulled again.

The producer of another series taped interviews with City Council candidates before the November election. The episode was swapped for local football games and other programs just before the Nov. 7 election.

LOS ANGELES - Today the ACLU of Southern California asked a judge to evaluate the May 1 actions by the L.A. Police Department's Metropolitan Division in light of the federal consent decree adopted in the wake of the Rampart brutality scandal.

The ACLU/SC requests a hearing with U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess to probe training, reporting and supervision of the Metropolitan Division and explore whether assignment rules that kept senior officers in the elite unit for years fed a warrior culture and code of silence that led to the melee.

On May 1, officers in Metropolitan Division Platoon B wielded batons and fired 150 projectiles into crowds gathered for a peaceful rally. Like the CRASH gang units that committed the Rampart abuses, the elite unit's actions may be the result of 'an insular subculture and strong code of loyalty that makes reporting of misconduct unlikely,' the filing states.

'While the police department has addressed some of the endemic problems exposed by the Rampart investigation, the similarities between Rampart and the actions of police on May 1 are striking,' said ACLU/SC Executive Director Ramona Ripston. 'In both cases, an elite unit seemed to act under its own orders, driven by a warrior culture that tolerates use of excessive force against civilians.'

Police have announced several investigations into the incident, but none will 'specifically confront the questions of the relationship of the Decree to what occurred, examining why the letter and spirit of the Decree were not followed,' the filing states. The court-appointed monitor of the consent decree, Michael Cherkasky, called for a full examination of the Metropolitan Division in his May 15 quarterly report. The ACLU/SC's filing asks the court to give the monitor's inquiry more specific direction.

"There are two federal court orders now in effect, and they didn't stop police on May 1. How did that happen?' asked ACLU/SC Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum, referring to the consent decree and the settlement of the ACLU/SC's lawsuit over police abuse of media during the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

The ACLU/SC successfully argued for a three-year extension of the consent decree in May 2006, citing evidence of racial bias in traffic stops and the department's failure to implement the TEAMS II computer system that tracks officer disciplinary records. The city signed the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2000 to head off a federal lawsuit, and the ACLU/SC intervened in 2001 to ensure citizens' civil rights are protected.

Photo: ACLU/SC's Mark Rosenbaum announces the settlement of a hospital dumping lawsuit with L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

Video released last year of a 63-year-old woman wandering Skid Row in a hospital gown sparked calls to end the hospital practice of dumping homeless patients in L.A.'s streets. The ACLU/SC has now settled a lawsuit filed last year against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, accused of mismanaging Carol Ann Reyes' care.

"What happened to Ms. Reyes was disgraceful, and this agreement will help bring dignity back to the treatment of homeless people in this city's hospitals," said ACLU/SC Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum. He called the settlement a "national model" for the hospital dumping problem that has plagued cities but received little attention until now.

Kaiser agreed to adopt new discharge protocols for homeless patients and training procedures for hospital staff members who work with them. A retired federal judge will oversee the agreement.

The ACLU/SC announced the settlement with co-counsel, Public Counsel, and the L.A. City Attorney's office, which filed criminal charges against the hospital.

Carol Ann Reyes was discharged from Kaiser's Bellflower hospital in March 2006 and dropped 16 miles away outside the Union Rescue Mission in downtown L.A. Mission staff had received little advance notice and were unprepared for Ms. Reyes, who still faced medical problems and was readmitted to another hospital soon after being dumped at the mission's doors.

The story came full circle at a May 15 press conference on the mission's roof. Public Counsel's Dan Grunfeld said the settlement "marks the end of a nightmare for Ms. Reyes and a new beginning for our city in how we treat some of our most vulnerable members."

Ms. Reyes, now 64, lives in an assisted-care facility in the L.A. area. Her treatment and the disturbing video of her dumping put a spotlight on the precarious position of L.A. county's homeless population. Approximately 88,000 people are homeless in the county each night, and limited services are available to meet the need.