While Tuesday’s City Council meeting was something of a slow burner, anyone who managed to make it through to the second half was rewarded with an entertaining showdown that rivaled anything else that was on television that evening.
During the June 11 meeting, a request was made by Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Caroline Torosis and Jesse Zwick to direct the City Attorney to return with a proposal for both an investigation into recent leaks of confidential information disclosed during Closed Sessions and subsequent penalty for anyone caught doing it.
Sloan introduced the item and touched upon some of the issues involved, "The resolution basically makes council members, board commission members and council appointed charter officials bound by the same rules as employees, then a process for reporting and investigating that."
Councilmember Caroline Torosis quickly went on record to say that she was happy with what Sloan had recommended in an almost cognitive preemptive anticipation of what was about to unfold.
Councilmember Christine Parra, who very much led the charge for not conducting any kind of investigation in the earlier June meeting asked about whether or not Sloan had looked into how other cities were handling, to which he replied he had not. Parra then suggested that perhaps this should be undertaken before any decision was made so that the resolution might benefit from further study.
To which Councilmember Gleam Davis responded, "I’m not opposed to finding out what other cities are doing … but I think rather than delay having our current set of ethical standards apply to the City Council and boards and commissions, we could adopt this tonight, so that we’re all covered, and so that members of boards and commissions are covered and then give the city attorney direction to go examine perhaps other language from other communities."
And then Councilmember Oscar de la Torre began. For nine minutes solid he talked about investigations that he claimed Davis had instigated, he accused Davis of "weaponizing this process" and having political motivations for continuing to push this resolution forward. He challenged the fact that a leak to the press in June 2021 caused Montebello City Manager Rene Bobadilla to decline his offer to join Santa Monica City staff, saying instead that it was the significant pay rise he was offered by Montebello City Council, which is of course true, but it’s only half the story.
"And I’m thinking, like, because of the heightened, sort of election, season, that I feel that if we approve this, some of the council members, you know, might say, ‘Hey, I’m going to launch an investigation against my political opponents, like it’s been done, you know, in these past couple of times by Councilwoman Davis," he said.
During his ramble De la Torre asked who would decide which investigations would be investigated first. "I’m looking at here in this resolution, it just seems like we’re going to end up with more of the same and maybe even worse, you know, with people launching more investigations and making allegations and I have just I’ve sat here, you know, with, with, with people doing that, and it just, it just feels it just feels like it’s so politically motivated," he said.
The body language of all members of council was as accurate a representation of their thoughts as anything else. Mayor Phil Brock had his head in his hands for some time as did several other members of the Council. Davis however, remained laser focused and regardless of which political group on Council you might prefer, some facts had been distorted.
"First of all, nobody’s launched an investigation because twice this council has voted it down," Davis said. "There’s been no investigation launched by this council either about the leaks relating to the City Manager in the City Attorney interviews or about the leaks that the City Attorney notified all of us about in an email that there had been leaks out of closed session."
She went on to suggest that if the Council wanted specific details about the leaks they could vote to release the City Attorney from the attorney client privilege and thus legally permitting full disclosure. During her retort, De la Torre interrupted Davis a number of times, "Let me finish. I let you finish even though you lied through your teeth about what happened up here," Davis said. She also referenced a letter that had apparently been circulated to all staff, "He [Bobadilla] sent us a letter saying that one of the reasons he was refusing the job that we offered him was because of the disclosure of information out of closed session."
A moment of silence fell over the dais as everyone pondered the very serious proposal that Davis had very seriously presented, but like scared school children not knowing which way to turn, no one so much as uttered a sound..
The back and forth between De la Torre and Davis continued and made no ground whatsoever. In fact, it was painful to watch and frankly Brock should have stepped in much sooner. The discussion ultimately took a familiar route down political lines. Parra fell back on the fact that she believed the language of the resolution was difficult to understand and Vice Mayor Lana Negrete offered her support.
When Brock did finally speak he did so with the tone of an angry parent. "We did so well in the first part of this night. And then we’ve just dissolved. And I’m embarrassed, frankly, I think both sides have merit. But this constant going back to 2021 [and] earlier this year, that’s not respectful of either side. Yeah, we’re a divided Council. But do we have to show it like this? I mean, I’m appalled."
This guaranteed addition to the Best of City Council ‘24 Collection drew to a close as Davis presented a compromised motion. "We adopt the resolution presented by the City Attorney tonight, with all the references to the City Council taken out. We adopt that tonight so that it applies to boards and commissions, too … [Then we] bring it back so we can consider it and to the extent we consider something that applies to City Council … and it will not apply to the City Council until December 10 of 2024."
The motion was seconded by Brock and passed 6-1 with only Torosis voting no.
