Probe is sought into city attorney replacement
CHICO >> The dismissal of Chico’s City Attorney Andrew Jared brought backlash from former mayors with interest in the rehiring of a former attorney Wednesday morning.
Former Chico mayor and councilor Karl Ory led a press conference outside the city hall, with input from California Democratic Party Central Committee member Bob Mulholland and local attorney Richard Harriman. Former mayor Michael McGinnis and Planning Commissioner Rich Ober were among those present in support.
Ory chastised the city council’s decision, claiming its actions may have violated the Brown Act. He criticized suddenly firing Andrew Jared, and rehiring attorney Vincent Ewing after recently choosing to retain the law firm Jared is now employed with, Colantuono, Highsmith, Whatley, PC.
Ory also criticized that the city attorney, a public employee, was dismissed in closed session without possibility for the public to be in the building for an announcement under current COVID-19 restrictions. He added Jared had been evaluated and rehired by the council three months prior in a competitive process.
“To suddenly tell us that the former city attorney would be hired without any competitive interviews, without any kind of understanding of why, this is a turn against the city of Chico,” Ory said. He also pushed against the rehiring of Ewing, who as city attorney had pushed the city to fight the referendum against Chico Scrap Metal which led to several pieces of litigation and mounting costs, saying Ewing had lost the lawsuit after months of litigation.
Of the special closed session meeting to take place Wednesday afternoon regarding the lawsuits involving the city and Chico Scrap Metal, Ory said, “I would like more transparency.”
“I think a lot of discussion and litigation against Chico Scrap Metal for violating zoning needs to be discussed publicly.” He said he is concerned that with rehiring Ewing in the midst of settling on a trial for the Chico Scrap Metal case, the council may attempt to reach a deal before a trial.
“Chico Democrats was a big part of the Junkyard Referendum and that ongoing issue of being an illegal site, not in compliance with local zoning, in my opinion is a factor with Coolidge’s motivation with (Councilor Sean) Morgan to bring Vincent Ewing back, as Ewing did everything possible to help the junkyard and all failed in the courts,” Mulholland added.
Mulholland referred to copies of the Enterprise-Record in his own statement, claiming that for such an action to be added to the closed session and resulting in a 5-2 vote must mean there had been prior discussion along the councilors before the meeting.
Mulholland sent public records requests to the city to learn who had placed the action to dismiss Jared on the closed session agenda, but showed this newspaper emails from the city clerk that said there were no documents for that request.
Presson wrote there were “no responsive documents for your request which means there is not an email, nor a phone message that exists and a verbal command is not considered a document.”
She also wrote in the emails that it was Jared who made the announcement in the empty City Council Chambers that he had been dismissed, not Coolidge.
“The city staff continue to claim that ‘nobody’ put the firing of the city attorney on the Closed Session Agenda,” Mulholland said.
“I asked for a copy of the press release announcing the firing. The city’s response — no such release was posted.”
Mulholland said, “Our plan is to forward this council action of a midnight job assassination of Andrew Jared to the Butte County Grand Jury and to the State Bar.”
Attorney Richard Harriman, who has represented Ory in his lawsuit involving the city and Chico Scrap Metal, said Jared’s public agency firm is a “well-regarded firm” and criticized the city for leaving its contract.
“Every day this firm is here representing the tax payers and the city of Chico, the public ( pays) to lawsuits because of this firm’s
bad advice and the money they earned defending suits brought on their bad advice,” Harriman said. “This is a bad deal for the taxpayers of Chico and it also exposes council members individually when they make mistakes.”
Coolidge was not available to comment Wednesday, but Morgan said the request for a personnel review first came from city staff to the closed session agenda for the council meeting Jan. 5 and returned for the meeting Feb. 2.
Morgan said after using the law firm AlvarezGlasman & Colvin where Jared was employed at for years, the firm began to send Jared instead of Ewing — “They never really told us why,” he said. Soon after, the council signed a new contract and Jared changed firms to Colantuono, Highsmith, Whatley, PC.
The council chose to stick with Jared after interviewing other law firms, in a 6-1 vote where Morgan was the lone opposition. He said it was a vote against retaining Colantuono, Highsmith, Whatley, PC services.
“I’m not particularly fond of this firm for my own reasons,” he said.
Morgan added he doesn’t understand why people are upset about the dismissal of the attorney and move to switch back to using AlvarezGlasman & Colvin legal services on Feb. 2.
“Until one week later … nobody had payed any attention, because it’s really not that big a deal,” he claimed.
Addressing complaints that the action took place while members of the public are restricted from entering the City Council Chambers, he said, “If that’s what they’re upset about, I get it. But the business of the city must go on and it did.
“Nothing shady happened,” Morgan said.
“To suddenly tell us that the former city attorney would be hired without any competitive interviews, without any kind of understanding of why, this is a turn against the city of Chico.”
— Karl Ory, former Chico mayor