The municipal council of Huntington Park has chosen a local commissioner for the public service to replace the former member of the Esmeralda Castillo council, whose headquarters were declared vacant after a investigation determined that it did not live in the city.
The appointment of Wednesday comes several days after a California court of appeal published a suspension on a ban on the ban on the Superior Court of Los Angeles which had prevented the city from filling the seat.
Castillo asked for the prohibition order within the framework of a civil trial which she brought against the city in February, in which she claims to be Illegally withdrawn from his functions.
His lawyer, Albert Robles, said that he was not surprised by the appointment – and said that the city violated the rights of its client’s regular procedure.
“Judge Barbara A. Meiers of the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles warned directly and unequivocally the municipal council not to appoint a replacement and if they did, it would be” at their risk “,” he said in a statement. “However, despite this judicial warning, and despite several members of the public who try to alert the municipal council during the comments of the public, they made a known challenge.”
Huntington Park officials said they were engaged in the regular procedure and transparency. They also say that they respect Castillo’s right to request a judicial examination of the Council’s decision.
“However, it is important to specify that the action of the council to declare the vacant headquarters has been taken in accordance with the long -standing laws of the states and the municipalities, which oblige elected officials to live in the city while serving in the public service,” said the press release. “This determination follows public complaints and an independent investigation carried out by the Huntington Park police service. The survey – on the basis of the documentation, verified evidence and declarations of witnesses – supported that the former member of the Council no longer resides in the (City). “
By appointing a new member of the Council, the mayor of Huntington Park, Arturo Flores, said that the city maintained its laws and the interests of its citizens.
“Any attempt to discredit this legal process is an attack on our democratic institutions and we must not defend it,” he said.
The former municipal councilor of Huntington Park, Esmeralda Castillo, photographed in Los Angeles on April 3.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
At least 29 candidates sought to fill the vacant seat. The possible choice of the Council was Nancy Martiz, member of the Huntington Park public service commission which advises the city on fair job practices.
Its biography published on the city’s website indicates that it “brings a solid community foundation and more than 15 years of public experience and from the private sector to the Council”.
Martiz, according to the city, graduated from South Gate High School in 2004 and holds a double baccalaureate in government and American studies of the Smith College. She also obtained a master’s degree in public administration and Cal State Policy Long Beach and worked for the South Gate City prosecutor’s office and the Los Angeles mayor’s office, according to her biography.
Martiz could not be reached immediately to comment.
His appointment is the last wrinkle of the current legal dispute on the controversial abolition of Castillo of his functions on February 18, when the results of the city’s residence survey were revealed to civic leaders at a closed -door meeting. The council then declared its vacant headquarters on February 24 and asked the candidates to replace it.
Two days later, investigators from the County Prosecutor’s Office of the County of the search mandates at the home of the mayor of Karina Macias at the time, the municipal councilor Eduardo “Eddie” Martinez and the municipal director Ricardo Reyes. Search mandates were also executed at the home of two former members of the Council, an entrepreneur and a consultant.
The mandates were part of what was nicknamed Operation Dirty Pond, an investigation into the alleged abusive use of taxpayers’ funds allocated to an aquatic center of 24 million dollars that was not built. No one has been charged.
Robles said that Castillo’s move was not only illegal but politically motivated, because it had filed an official complaint with the city against three members of the Council and the director of the city.
“Here, the defendants not only acted as a judge, jury and executioner, but to highlight the unfair political power of the defendants, (they) also carried out the investigation,” alleged Castillo in his pursuit.
Andrew Sarega, the lawyer who was hired to supervise the city’s investigation, said that Huntington Park police investigators examined the Castillo residence of the months before depositing his grievance.
He declared that a complaint was also filed in August with the office of the County Prosecutor, who refused to take the case after having determined that the question was a civilian case, not a criminal case, according to an email obtained by the Times.
The Huntington Park authorities said they launched their investigation into Castillo in November after the municipal director received complaints alleging that she did not live in the city.
The investigation included surveillance, monitoring and searching mandates approved by the court at Huntington Park’s apartment in Castillo and his parents’ house in South Gate. Investigators also interviewed five witnesses, including Castillo, according to Sarega.
He said the investigators followed the Castillo vehicle for a month in January and discovered that she had only stayed the Huntington Park Apartment. Someone else lived there, but Castillo also sent a letter there, said Sarega.
Robles said that his client had taken care of his sick parents while retaining a full -time residence at Huntington Park, who, according to him, is authorized under the electoral laws of the States and the City.
Meiers, the judge of the Superior Court, made a prohibition order against the city on April 4 – inciting those responsible to appeal. The court of appeal of the 2nd district of California granted the stay this week, only a few days before the deadline of 60 days of the city to fill the seat and avoid what would have been an expensive special election.
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