Just minutes before the Laguna Niguel City Council was set to decide whether or not to remove Councilman Jerry Slusiewicz as mayor, he offered up a surprise and voluntarily resigned.
“A few moments ago I resigned as mayor because I could not in good conscience preside over a phony proceeding convened in the name of Laguna Niguel taxpayers,” Slusiewicz said in a prepared statement read from the parking lot of city hall Monday. “To put it bluntly, my colleagues do not want me as the mayor, and I cannot lead a body suffering from the great disability of indifference.”
Slusiewicz is at the center of a number of internal investigations ranging from abuse of power to bullying of city employees. He has denied those claims and made allegations of his own that the city council violated the Brown Act by hiring a law firm to investigate the claims against him before the council voted on it.
“If I don’t step down as mayor, it legitimizes this hasty sham removal process and may have the legal consequence of ratifying prior Brown Act violations thereby allowing certain decisions to avoid public scrutiny,” Slusiewicz added.
This acrimony is going to make for some interesting times on the Laguna Niguel City Council. Though he will no longer be mayor, Slusiewicz will remain on the dais until his term ends in 2020.
Read more Slusiewicz’s resignation here.