(Los Alamitos, 2/20/2012)It looks like Los Alamitos’ City Attorney got it wrong once again!
In a letter from the Fair Political Practices Committee that became public over the weekend, the state’s political watchdog commission indicated that Los Alamitos City Attorney Sandra Levin was wrong when she advised Council Member Gerri Graham-Mejia to recuse herself from closed sessions about the trash litigation over a year ago.
Mejia, who missed every closed session on the trash contract since last winter indicated she had “a lot of catching up to do. I was not part of those meetings because I went by the advice given to us by legal counsel.”
This was the same City Attorney that Judge Banks ruled against when Levin told the City Council they were not violating the law by awarding the city’s trash franchise to the fifth highest qualified bidder.
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“The (Political Reform) Act does not prohibit you from participating in City Council decisions regarding the litigation,” stated the FPPC in a 1/24/2012 letter to Graham Mejia that the OC Register obtained through a California Public Records Act request. “The Act’s conflict-of-interest provisions apply only to conflicts of interest arising from certain enumerated economic interests and you have no stated economic interests in these decisions.”
“Why did our city attorney, with the information I gave her, say that’s a conflict?” Graham-Mejia now wonders.
Sadly our only Council Member who voted against breaking the law and wasting a projected $5.5 million ratepayer dollars was wrongly excluded by our own City Attorney from all discussion and negotiation related to that lawsuit.
Sounds a little bit like “taxation without representation” to me!
Coming tomorrow. . . .
Meanwhile, at their Regular meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday, 2/21/2012), the Council majority appears ready to vote to:
- Change the law so the contract no longer must go to the original bidder.
- Reinstate the existing contract with Republic Disposal that Judge Banks voided.
- Modify the City’s laws so that no item can even be placed on the Council’s agenda without a minimum of three votes to do so. (See “Council to require 3 votes to agendize?“)
At least Mejia will be present for the 6:30 closed session to further discuss the trash litigation.
I’m hoping that all three Council majority members will begin righting the wrong done to the citizens and to Graham-Mejia by wrongly excluding her voice from over a year’s discussions. A good place to begin would be to find a new City Attorney, and then start over with the decisions on how to respond to Judge Banks’ ruling.
Then vote down the “3 votes to agendize” proposal.
And stop the persecution of Council Member Kusumoto.
And maybe make Council Member Graham-Mejia Mayor pro tem!
Yes, such steps seem unthinkable, given the majority’s history.
But we really are all members of the same community. And we deserve leaders that find ways to work together for the common good.
Our small town deserves it, and it’s the right thing to do.
Those steps could go a long way towards beginning healing in our divided community, by letting all of us feel like the representatives we voted for are heard and respected.
All it would take is one majority member making a bold move and doing the right thing.
Does former Mayor Stephens have it in him?
Does Mayor pro tem Poe?
Does Mayor Edgar?
I hope and pray they all do.
Because it’s time our elected leaders stop fighting each other and start fighting crime, political corruption, traffic and, most of all, fighting to make our small town a place where neighbors respect differing viewpoints and know their voices will be heard.
Because working together, we really can fix Los Alamitos!
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“Why did our city attorney, with the information I gave her, say that’s a conflict?” Graham-Mejia now wonders.
Now consider all that is being done to try to ensure that Poe is allowed to vote on Edgar’s Los Alamitos Blvd project even though she has property within the limit that auto-magically disqualifies her as “having a conflict”.
I could have sworn that the City Attorney’s job was to represent all the members of the City Council as a group, not just the will and desires of the majority.
Unfortunately since I am a named Plaintiff in litigation with the city anything I may say about this will be seen through the lens of that litigation. But the evidence is mounting that the City of Los Alamitos was MUCH better served by the offices of BBK and Dean Derleth.
Seems to me the city may have been getting bad advice all along with this attorney