In an email to the News Enterprise, Los Alamitos mayor and 72nd Assembly candidate, Troy Edgar accused fellow council members, Warren Kusumoto and Gerri Graham-Mejia of abusing their power and harassment of staff. The mayor’s comments come on the heels of Kusumoto’s request for a special meeting to investigate possible criminal prosecution of the three remaining council members for their roles in awarding the controversial trash contract to Consolidated Disposal Services.
“This is continued harassment of staff and the wasting of the taxpayer’s money. This political grandstanding provides no benefit to the community and this type of behavior is outrageous and I won’t condone or reinforce Warren’s actions”, Edgar states in his response given to the News Enterprise when sought for comment after the three remaining council members, Marilynn Poe, Ken Stephens, and Edgar refused to attend last week’s meeting called by Kusumoto and Mejia.
After last week’s Los Alamitos special city council meeting which had just two members of the council present, Councilman Warren Kusumoto continued his pursuit of an investigation into how the city came to violate its own ordinance when it awarded its trash contract to Consolidated Disposal Services.
Kusumoto has requested more special meetings, but has yet to get all of his fellow council members to agree. Council member Gerri Graham-Mejia has been the only one to support the call for an investigation, but has said she expects the matter to be pushed aside by Mayor Troy Edgar, Poe, and Stephens.
After last week’s meeting that never got underway because there were not enough council members present to attain a quorum, Edgar responded by calling the actions of Kusumoto, “political grandstanding” and an abuse of power. Poe agreed, noting that this issue had been settled and put behind the city.
“This issue was settled and the council members agreed some weeks ago to move on and call a truce so we could do the business of the people of this city”, Poe said. “Evidently, the truce is off.” Poe said she was on vacation last week when the meeting was called for and had informed the city and her fellow council members that she would be unavailable when the request for the meeting was made.
Kusumoto wants the city to seek legal counsel in order to determine if there was any violation that could be considered criminal and require prosecution for the trash contract violation. A lawsuit from a citizen’s group was upheld by the courts which said that the awarding of the contract to Consolidated Disposal Services violated city ordinance requiring the lowest responsible bidder. Consolidated’s bid was not the lowest. However, the courts also noted that the ordinance was not clear and gave the city latitude to revise the ordinance. The city did so and re-awarded the contract to CDS. And after some appeals, eventually settled with the citizen¹s group to end the case.
Edgar said that Kusumoto and Graham-Mejia are aware that there is a conflict for the other three council members because they would be potential subjects of any investigation. If the city were to pursue legal action against any members of the council, those members would not be allowed to be involved in the discussion, Edgar said. However, since this is a legal matter, Edgar said that the city attorney has advised the city that there is no grounds for legal action, but that Kusumoto is still trying to force the issue.
“Procedurally this is a dead issue, but it makes for good politics,” Edgar said.
Kusumoto was accused of Brown Act violations by Edgar, Poe and Stephens for a letter he wrote recusing himself from the trash contract litigation talks earlier this year. Though there was never any follow-up to the accusations, Kusumoto has said he was never publicly cleared after being publicly accused. He had asked for an investigation to determine if his actions had been a violation. The issue was dropped, but Kusumoto said his counterparts should now be held to the same standards.
“I’m trying to follow the standard that was set,” Kusumoto said.
Kusumoto noted that the city has prosecuted citizens for code violations, so why should the council not be held to the same standard. He also said that if he were one of the three, he would welcome an opportunity to present his side and attempt to prove his innocence.
Edgar has questioned the motive and timing of the request for an investigation. He also noted that all parties knew there would be a conflict for three members of the council, so the effort to call for a special meeting was a waste of time.
“[Kusumoto and Graham-Mejia] knew this would be futile because the only item on the agenda was the criminal prosecution of three council members”, Edgar said.
The plaintiffs in the trash contract-related lawsuit, Citizens for a Fair Trash Contract, settled the lawsuit in May. Consolidated Disposal agreed to pay the citizen group’s attorney fees of $215,000, and all parties agreed to drop all pending appeals.