Plourde to Pursue Defamation Suit; Audio Recording Appears to Support His Case

Arthur J. Plourde

Recently ousted Library Commissioner, Arthur Plourde, is now pursuing legal action against Torrance for defamation of character.  He claims that the City made several false allegations against him in order to justify his removal from the volunteer position. Those false allegations were subsequently circulated widely in the community through social media and an article in the Daily Breeze. Plourde believes this negative exposure slandered his character and unjustly harmed his reputation.

The City accused Plourde of advocating a personal agenda thereby exceeding the scope of his duties. This allegation appeared to stem from a March Library Commission meeting. In reference to Plourde’s behavior that day, the City staff report stated that Plourde “gave a speech” about how President Roosevelt declared English the language of this country and how all people coming to this country need to learn English. The staff report also noted that when another commissioner asked what item on the agenda they were discussing that Plourde directed his comments to that commissioner and was “direct, loud, and used an accusatory tone” while “pounding his fists on the table.” The City also claimed that Plourde’s action resulted in the offended commissioner being “too upset to speak for the rest of the meeting.”

Plourde adamantly denies the City’s portrayal of his behavior. He claims he did not pound his fists on the table and that there were witnesses in attendance who will testify to that effect. He says he was only trying to offer his opinion based on his interpretation of the oath of office that he took to uphold the California Constitution. If guilty of anything, he believes it would be solely offering a perspective that his colleagues apparently did not agree with.

A newly released audio recording of the meeting would seem to corroborate Plourde’s version of events and may ultimately provide some of the evidence Plourde will need in order to prevail in a lawsuit.

During the meeting, there was a discussion about the changing mix of ethnic groups in the community and the desire to have more materials available in foreign languages to accommodate those groups. At one point, one commissioner wondered aloud if the City was addressing the needs of the community by not having more foreign language materials available. To that, the City Librarian commented that one of the long term needs was material in other languages. In reference to that need she stated, “We know we need to invest more … we need more money in international languages.”

That prompted the following response from Plourde provided in its entirety:

“The primary focus here in America is the English language.  The people coming to this nation in 1907 were welcomed by President Roosevelt and [he] stated clearly that he welcomes all immigrants, that our language in this country was English and that we had one flag and one flag only in this country and there would be no other flag flown in this country.  And this is a Presidential order and now we are drifting away from our American institutions and our heritage with respect to allowing these other languages to drift into our society and become primary languages instead of secondary languages.”

Plourde’s statement above barely totaled 40 seconds in length and he hardly spoke at all during the rest of the 90 minute meeting. His comments were succinct, on point, and relevant to the matter under discussion. Plourde did speak with conviction, but contrary to the staff report his comment did not appear directed at any one colleague in particular. In fact, he was actually interrupted toward the end of his thought by a colleague asking where they were on the minutes in what appeared as an attempt to cut him off. He did not state that everyone coming to this country should learn English, nor did it seem like his comments were overly loud or accusatory. The audio also does not reveal any obvious fist pounding sounds.

After Plourde’s comments, the meeting continued to proceed amicably and in a professional manner with all Commissioners continuing to speak at various times in contradiction to the staff report stating that one commissioner did not speak the rest of the meeting.

Plourde had no idea he had upset any of his colleagues until Mayor Furey called him in for a closed door meeting shortly before he was removed. At the meeting, he was told the Mayor had received complaints about his disruptive behavior at the March meeting and pins he wore on his suit, as is his custom, to his initial Library Commission meeting in February. Those pins included an American flag, the Marine flag, a pro-life pin, a 9/11 remembrance pin, a support the troops pin, and a support Israel pin. Plourde did not wear the pins to the meeting in March or his last commission meeting in April.

The relevant portion of the audio recording is provided below.