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Councilmembers Bedolla and Evans Attempt to Stop City Attorney Patel’s Resignation; City’s Vacant Council Seat Scandal
While Bijal Patel’s resignation as the City Attorney is good news for city, there is more to the story than her simply walking away.
It turns out that Councilmembers Mateo Bedolla and Dan Evans attempted to stop the city attorney’s settlement agreement with the city for her “voluntary” resignation. If they had been successful, then Patel would have remained at City Attorney.
Councilmembers Mateo Bedolla and Dan Evans failed in close session to keep City Attorney Bijal Patel.
Make no mistake, a vote of abstention is the same as a no vote.
Also, someone doesn’t negotiate a settlement when they are “voluntarily” resigning. Patel was being forced out and Bedolla and Evans tried to stop it.
One might argue that it only makes sense the two would attempt to derail her resignation.
Afterall, both voted to give full authority over the city to Patel, as well as giving her a retroactive pay raise increasing her salary to $279,807 per year, which is more than the Governor gets!
By attempting to stop her resignation, Bedolla and Evans showed their lack of judgement and common sense, especially after both losing big time in the recent General Election.
Over 87% of the electorate voted against Mateo Bedolla retaining his city council seat, and every one of Dan Evans’ endorsed candidates lost – including Eleassia Davis and Alice English.
The voters spoke volumes at the ballot box, and it was an overwhelming referendum against the political agenda advanced by the alliance of Patel and Councilmembers Bedolla, Evans and Davis.
The Grand Jury report was damning against this cabal and voters made it clear that enough is enough.
It’s clear that Bedolla and Evans still don’t get it. Elections, according to them, don’t have consequences.
THE VACANT COUNCIL SEAT APPOINTMENT SCANDAL
If voters needed yet another reason to celebrate the exiting of Bijal Patel as city attorney, then all they need to point to is the timing of Dan Evans’ amendment to the city’s policy on appointing new members to the vacant council seat one month before the November election.
The City Attorney somehow, burdened by a massive backlog of work identified by the Grand Jury, was able to turn around the proposed policy amendment in time for their next council meeting – two weeks before the General Election.
Coincidence? We think not.
Why? Because the Grand Jury highlighted a pattern of collusion amongst the city attorney and the majority council members.
Evans was clearly hedging his bet by proposing and ramming through this amendment. He was banking on Davis winning the mayor’s race and, at the very least, Alice English (his candidate) placing third in the crowded council race.
Evans’ lost his bet, but it did position Mateo Bedolla to take the seat as the third-place vote getter.
The issue, however, is that voters elected for change on city council – not more of the same.
Voting to change the policy amendment just weeks before the General Election was lazy legislating, with the potential implications not fully vetted. You don’t change the rules in the middle of an election!
Mateo Bedolla did not get elected to that vacant seat as recently suggested by Dan Evans (who is scrambling to win the support of Bedolla who he dumped in favor of Alice English). Read about the final results here.
Bedolla does not deserve to be handed a seat that he lost outright as the incumbent.
The new mayor and city council needs to do right by the voters and suspend a policy amendment that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Appointing a failed council member and a failed candidate, Bedolla is an affront to the 87% of the public that rejected his at the ballot box.
Councilman Bedolla verbally attacks a member of the public who spoke at the August 20th Special Meeting regarding the Tracy Civil Grand Jury report.