Westminster Councilwoman Amy Phan West is heading into another legal fight with her city council colleagues, this time over one question – who is allowed to livestream and record a city council meeting? 

The debate comes after a majority of the city council voted to ask Phan West to stop recording a special meeting on Oct. 6 from her phone, with Councilman Carlos Manzo calling it a distraction. 

“I personally do not want one of my colleagues recording me,” Manzo said at the meeting. “I don’t know if the rest of my colleagues are comfortable with that.” 

Phan West pushed back, arguing that the meeting was already being recorded by city staff and that it was her right to record anything she wanted. 

“This is my freedom of speech,” Phan West said. 

The city livestreams its meetings and keeps a video archive online.

It’s the newest chapter in a series of disagreements she’s had with her colleagues on the council, who are currently suing her and calling on a superior court judge to rein her in for repeatedly disrupting city council meetings and violating the council’s decorum rules.

Earlier this year, an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered Phan West to complete an in-person ethics training course as part of a diversion program after the elected official was charged with a misdemeanor for attempted bribery by trying to improperly influence local police from towing her husband’s car. 

After council members shot down her recording of the meeting, her lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to city staff, insisting she be allowed to livestream future meetings and accusing city leaders of violating state law when they voted to stop her from recording. 

“The people of Westminster deserve honesty, openness, and accountability — not backroom deals and secret decisions,” Phan West wrote in a Facebook post announcing the letter. “I will always stand up for the people — to ensure our city operates in the light, not in the shadows.” 

David Loy, legal director of the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, said that Phan West is entitled to livestream and record meetings so long as it wasn’t a distraction. 

“I think it’s correct to say a council member has a right to record a council meeting on the same terms as any member of the public,” Loy said in a Tuesday interview. 

He also noted that the council discussing the issue was not in and of itself a distraction. 

“That cannot be right or anything would be a disruption,” Loy said. “The whole purpose of a city council meeting is to debate public issues … just on the face of the Brown Act, I think the councilmember has a right to record.” 

The Brown Act is the chief law governing transparency in public meetings in California. 

City Attorney Scott Porter told council members they were allowed to request that she stop filming the meeting, a move that Loy said is legally allowable as long as they make it clear it’s not binding. 

“If the resolution is limited to a request and not a requirement, certainly yes. The majority of the council is entitled to express its view ‘We prefer you not do this,” Loy said. “As long as it’s clear that anyone who objects to that has a right to continue recording regardless of the resolution, I don’t think that violates the law.” 

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.