City Officials Must Be Neutral & Unbiased

City councilmembers are policymakers. They are the voice of their constituents. Occasionally, this role shifts to mirror that of a judge when the legislative body hears matters on appeal from an administrative body. Serving in this quasi-judicial capacity, officials must remain neutral and unbiased decisionmakers.

The restraints imposed on city councilmembers when hearing an appeal were explored earlier this year in Petrovich Development Co. LLC v. City of Sacramento in which the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a lower court's decision to void a city's conditional use permit denial. The appellate court affirmed that one biased councilmember's participation in the permit denial process was enough to invalidate the decision.