Mall Study to Be Made Public

CERRITOS — After a heated disagreement between its city manager and its city attorney, the Cerritos City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to make public a consultant’s report on whether the city ought to build an upscale shopping center in the Towne Center redevelopment area.

City Manager Gaylord Knapp argued that all or portions of the report should be kept secret in order to protect the city’s interests in land negotiations. City Atty. Kenneth Brown said that under the state’s open public meeting act, the city could not justify keeping any of the report secret.

“The law says everything we do, we do in public,” Brown said.

Councilman Sherman Kappe, supporting Brown’s point of view, said, “If this was taken to court we would lose. This is a public document.”

Daniel Wong was the only council member to side with Knapp in trying to censor the report.

The council said it would discuss the entire contents of the report at its Aug. 1 meeting. According to Michele Wastal, the city’s public information officer, the report says it would not be wise economically for the city to develop a shopping center on the site at this time.