It was a jam-packed evening at Tuesday’s South El Monte City Council Meeting. Here’s what went down:
The City Attorney Resigned
South El Monte City Attorney Anthony Ybarra stepped down amid mounting calls for his resignation. Ybarra cited health issues as his reason for leaving, but some residents and city officials have been questioning his judgement in light of allegations of financial mismanagement and a corruption scandal involving the city’s former mayor.
In late June, a special audit revealed that lax oversight had allowed two contract consultants to defraud the city. Then, late last month, former mayor Luis Aguinaga admitted to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from a city contractor. Finally, it was revealed that the U.S. Justice Department has designated the city a “high-risk grantee” as of Feb. 20, 2015. According to Councilman Joe Gonzales, neither the designation nor the Department of Justice’s repeated efforts to seek additional information from the city about the matter have ever been discussed.
“To say things are transparent at City Hall is laughable,” Gonzales said. “We’re only now finding out about audits on the city, when ones like the Department of Justice’s have been going on for a long time.”
Despite these troubles, the city council voted 3 to 1 to offer Ybarra his full salary through the end of the year, with medical benefits set to last through Jan. 31, 2017.
Gonzales was the lone dissenter.
“I don’t think a city manager under a cloud of corruption should be negotiating terms of his release,” said the councilman.
The Council Approved a New Competitive Bidding Process for Contracts
To prevent a repeat of some of the problems mentioned above and ensure fairness and efficacy, the council unanimously voted to subject all contract services to a new competitive bidding process Tuesday. One exception: the city attorney’s contract. The mere mention of such an idea by Gonzales nearly sent the council into a tailspin.
The Council Voted to Request Another Audit
The council agreed to ask State Controller Betty Yee to audit all of the city’s finances. Yee is already reviewing South El Monte’s use of gas tax funds, but this would be far more comprehensive. The city has joined both the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) in doing so.
The Council Said No to Term Limits and a Crisis Management Consultant (for now)
In light of the recent scandals, Councilman Hector Delgado had suggested imposing term limits on the city’s elected leaders and changing the mayor to an appointed position. But the council opted not do so, instead leaving the matter up to a future election. The council similarly decided to wait on hiring a crisis management consultant team for the time being.
Members Voted to Hold a Special Election
In another unanimous decision, the city council voted to hold a special election to replace Aguinaga. The election will be held in March, which is the earliest possible time, according to City Attorney Quinn Barrow.
Read more about Tuesday’s meeting here.
Image Credit: Flickr User theclevelandkid24, https://flic.kr/p/6vnEtm via (CC BY 2.0)