Update on the City Hall media access brouhaha

City Hall reporters have a noon appointment with Council President Eric Garcetti and pro-tem Jan Perry (or their representatives) to discuss the new access restrictions for the council chambers that have been an issue for a couple of weeks. But will the meeting be fruitful? "Yusef [Robb, Garcetti's media deputy] has asked that this be an 'an off-the-record, frank discussion/working meeting,'" says email from KNX reporter Claudia Peschiutta. KFI's Eric Leonard reportedly says he'll walk out if the meeting is not on the record, according to KABC's Michaerl Linder, who has been chronicling the dispute on his blog. Leonard, meanwhile, says he was threatened with arrest by a council sergeant at arms for taking photos of Friday's protest by rent control activists. "I was physically restrained by Officer Johnson," Leonard says. The L.A. Times' James Rainey adds his take in a column today: what I tweeted was "the great City Hall media access fight of 2010" he now calls "The Almost Great City Hall Access Dustup."

Previously on LA Observed:
May 11: City Hall reporters in uproar over access rules *
May 11: Council clarifies media access rules
May 12: Not everybody happy about new City Council media rules

Photo: Eric Leonard