After several months of drama at City Hall in Cypress, City Manager Peter Grant has resigned from his position almost immediately after what were called tense closed session meetings in which new Council members demanded to reopen the files related to charges against Grant made by a retired official.
Neither Grant nor the city had ever officially responded to the April 2025 assertion by longtime Public Works Director Doug Dancs that Grant should be fired for cause, citing unspecified “unlawful acts of misconduct” by the former city manager.
Instead, efforts by Grant’s allies on the Council attempted to blow past the investigation, at first refusing to disclose the results of an investigation by an L.A. law firm to either Council members Chang or Medrano, saying they were not on the
Council when this happened, and then opposed in debate to provide them access.
Both Council members Bonnie Peat and Scott Minikus, close allies to the former city manager, suggested reasons why they did not favor granting access to the new members.Mayor David Burke, who was a member of the Council during the investigation in 2024, sided with Mayor Pro-tem Leo Medrano, and newly elected Council member Kyle Chang as they pushed for access to the paperwork and investigation of the incident.
Burke called two closed sessions during the summer break, which were attended by city attorney Fred Galante and Attorney James Brown, a representative of Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore, the law firm that was paid to investigate the claims made by Dancs, as they further “evaluated” the conduct of Grant.
The first session on Aug. 11 was attended by neither Peat nor Minikus, and the second, held on Aug. 18, was briefly attended by Peat, who reportedly left early. During that meeting, it is rumored, though not confirmed, that the Council voted 3-0 to provide access to the investigation to the Council members.
Galante did report out that three members had voted to direct him to ‘take action,” though unspecificed.
Grant did attend the Aug. 18 meeting at which the three Council members reportedly voted for the city attorney to take action. Grant either resigned shortly thereafter, or perhaps during the meeting, so that part is uncertain and Burke said afterwards that closed session information cannot be revealed to the public.
Either the motion was based on the investigation to ask Grant to resign or Grant announced to the group at some point his intention to resign. The public may never know what happened, and Council member Peat reportedly left early, reportedly before the vote.
The mayor said the lack of information is the “unfortunate nature” of closed sessions, yet he urged the city to “turn the page” following the bruising political ordeal.
Either way, Grant was out, and he returned to his office only to compose a “Farewell Cypress” message to the staff in which he touted 11 years of progress during his tenure as city manager.
On Monday, Galante made it official, reporting to the public before the Aug. 25 Council meeting that the city had officially accepted Grant’s resignation.
“I’ve been asked to announce that Mr. Peter Grant has resigned his position as City Manager, effective immediately, and the city has entered into a severance agreement and general release effective today (Aug.25),” Galante announced.
Galante also announced that the city had indeed parted ways with Grant and in a unanimous vote, Finance Director Mark Burton was appointed as Acting/Interim City Manager until a replacement can be found for Grant.
“I wish him nothing but the best,” said Burton. “It has been a challenging few months for the city staff as well as the department directors,” he said. “I appreciate the City Council’s support in allowing me to assist on a temporary basis to see the city through this transition,” said Burton.
Although never named Acting City Manager, Burton had been in the role briefly as Grant’s designee when the former city manager was out of town.
While the meeting was mostly muted regarding Grant, Minikus tried to explain his absences at the closed sessions by suggesting he was on a “working vacation” with his job at the Department of Homeland Security; he tried in vain to cast aspersions on both Burke and Medrano for Grant’s downfall.
Minikus, a retired Long Beach policeman, is now apparently employed in some capacity by the federal government, lashed out by making wild accusations against both men that were not only unsubstantiated but also seemed to violate of the city’s civility code.
The ENE has requested a copy of the separation agreement, but has learned Grant’s severance and release statement reportedly awards him $313,000 and other benefits.
Minikus, although he chose not to attend the closed sessions regarding Grant, attempted Monday to prolong the fight, accusing Burke, along with former Mayor Anne Mallari, of engineering Grant’s ousting by orchestrating Dancs’ appearance before the Council in April.
Questions have been raised about Minikus’ role in Dancs departure, as he signed the settlement agreement and other paperwork, which was reported on the city’s financial warrants, but not listed by name.
Frances Marquez, who has filed a federal lawsuit against Minikus and others on the previous Council, said she was a duly elected Council member and never consulted or voted on Dancs settlement agreement. She has also questioned its approval.
Norma Stein, a longtime resident and a retired human resources executive, with four decades of experience, suggested she had information that Dancs had been on Grant’s trail for months and their assertions about Burke were off base.
“I am aware” that Dancs had been “documenting their concerns” about Grant “for the past few years” and had planned to do this all along, so blaming Burke “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Nevertheless, she said it was time to move on and move forward.
“We need to accept his (Grant’s) decision, and we need to accept the decision by the City Council, and we need to move forward,” said Stein.“I think it’s time that we stop casting aspersions on the City Council, and I just hope that we can come together and focus on more positive things and stop being negative with each other,” she said.
“Please stop slandering each other and stop admonishing the City Council,” she said “rhetorically, it’s time to move forward, that’s all I have to say.”
In other business, the Council briefly debated various aspects of a new no-smoking ordinance, which enjoyed a first reading at the meeting.
Burke said the new ordinance is “related to smoking regulations” in the city.
“The proposed ordinance is related to tightening up the smoking regulations that exist in the city,” the city attorney said. While the measure includes the passage of city codes, Galante said, enforcement of the action, whether by the police department or the city code enforcement team, will need to be decided by the Council.
Peat and Minikus said they favored strict adherence to a state law that regulates smoking areas in public spaces, Chang said the existing city code was “outdated” and, in his view, the state law did not go far enough to protect citizens from the secondary impact of cigarette smoke.
Connery Nickerson, a resident of Cypress, said she also represents the community engagement program of the Clean Air OC coalition, and was there to ask the Council to support a strong new ordinance.
“I highly support these new regulations, and I encourage the council members to implement these proposals to the current city ordinances,” said Nickerson.
“I’ve seen the studies that show how these spaces in our community have an alarming amount of secondhand smoke prevalent,” she said. “The data is clear,” said Nickerson.
“There is no safe level of exposure with those of us at risk being our most vulnerable,” Nickerson told the Council, explaining her own health impacts of being exposed to cigarette smoke.
“Having constant exposure harmed my long-term health, leaving me with respiratory distress,” she said. “I did not choose this exposure,” said Nickerson.
“I worry for the children of my community when they’re exposed to cigarette smoke that they don’t get to choose,” she added. “Their right to a smoke-free life is being denied.”
She urged the Council to beef up smoking regulations for outdoor dining, multi-family housing, and to expand the no-smoking zone around schools and day care centers.
“Thank you so much for your time, and I encourage this council to implement these proposals to the current city ordinances.”
The Council will seek input on the measure before bringing it back for a second reading.