The top administrator of the troubled City of Industry said he was stepping down Friday after expressing fears that he would be terminated by the council’s new majority.
Cory Moss, Newell Ruggles, and Mark Radecki were elected to the council on June 2 and are said to have close ties to former Mayor David Perez. As one of their first orders of business, the new members fired city attorney Michele Vadon who spearheaded the city’s lawsuit against Perez and his family amid allegations of breach of contract and public corruption.
City Manager Kevin Radecki, a brother of Mark Radecki, feared that a similar fate would soon befall him. In the weeks leading up to the election, the city manager expressed concerns that he too would be fired for raising questions over lucrative contracts between the Perez clan and the city.
Following a closed session Monday, new city attorney James Casso said the council voted 4 to 0 to accept Kevin Radecki’s resignation. The decision was amicable, Ruggles insisted, and Radecki will stay on for one year to ensure a smooth transition.
"We might be without a city manager for a day or two," Ruggles said.
The council members have also denied that City Attorney Vadon’s termination was the result of any loyalty to the former mayor. Instead, they insist the firing stemmed from her failure to act as a proper watchdog for the city's finances. The new city attorney James Casso, they note, has extensive experience with these types of situations, having steered the City of Bell through its own corruption scandal.
The City of Industry alleges that former mayor Perez and his family conspired to cheat the city out of more than $200 million using vague or erroneous invoices. An April audit by the firm KPMG found that Industry had doled out more than $326 million to companies owned by Perez and his family over the past 20 years. Those dealings are now the subject of criminal investigations launched by the county District Attorney’s Office and State Controller Betty Yee.
Read more about Kevin Radecki’s resignation here.