Livingston appoints interim city manager. Outrage continues after prior manager’s dismissal
For the third time in less than a week, dozens of impassioned Livingston residents gathered at City Hall on Friday to air grievances over City Council’s decision terminate City Manager Jose Ramirez.
The council held a special meeting Friday evening to consider the discipline and/or dismissal of a public employee, as well as the appointment of an interim city manager. Accusations of misconduct flew as residents demanded answers from Livingston officials prior to the council’s closed session meeting.
Livingston Finance Director Vanessa Portillo was unanimously selected as interim city manager following a 4-1 vote to proceed with terminating Ramirez “with cause,” City Attorney Tom Hallinan reported after the closed session decision was finalized. Councilmember Jose Moran cast the dissenting vote.
Residents chanted “recall” after the information was reported.
A week of political turmoil in Livingston
Political conflict boiled over just a few days earlier, when Tuesday’s Livingston City Council meeting drew hours of testimony from city residents and high-ranking county officials. A vast majority spoke in defense of the former city manager as he faced his fifth performance evaluation in 11 months.
But the statements of support weren’t enough to prevent City Council from initiating the process of terminating Ramirez late that night.
Residents congregated outside City Hall on Wednesday to protest the decision and demand answers from officials as to why Ramirez was fired. Outcry has largely criticized Livingston officials for providing little to no transparency over Ramirez’s termination.
It wasn’t until Friday’s report out of closed session that city officials publicly and explicitly stated that Ramirez was being let go and identified who would take on his former role.
Due to the issue being an ongoing personnel matter, citizens are still unclear as to why the city manager was terminated.
Some have speculated that it related to several employees being put on administrative leave. Others believe the termination is connected to an effort to recall four members of the five-person City Council.
Former Livingston mayor Gurpal Samra questioned some of his former colleagues about what had changed to turn their opinion of the city manager in the less than a year’s time since Samra has been out of elected office. “You had always spoken highly of Mr. Ramirez,” he said to Councilmember Maria Soto.
But while public information has been minimal, City Council on Friday were accused by some of privately discussing information with citizens. Resident Ana Alberto relayed a series of conversations she said she had with Councilmember Gagandeep Kang and Mayor Pro Tem Raul Garcia earlier this week.
Through these conversations, Alberto alleged that she was able to learn about Friday’s special meeting before it was publicly posted. She also said that she was told information about who would be appointed interim city manager before the public was notified on Friday.
“If they shared closed session information with me, why wasn’t it reported that way?” Alberto said. “No wonder information flies around town.”
Alberto gave papers to the city clerk that she said contained copies of text messages and call logs supporting her statements.
Kang and Garcia did not respond at Friday’s meeting to Alberto’s description of events, but Moran asked the city attorney how to proceed with the accusations.
“There are some allegations . . . that closed session information was released,” Moran said. “What would be the protocol instead of doing nothing?”
Hallinan responded that he would have to provide that advice to the council privately as their lawyer.
Some residents criticize Livingston city attorney
Alberto, Samra and other residents have criticized Livingston’s city attorney, who just recently began his contract with the city. Hallinan is with the law firm White Brenner LLP.
Critics say Hallinan has been excessive in keeping the council’s decisions confidential and that his behavior toward residents has been disrespectful. After the closed session termination of Ramirez on Tuesday night, Hallinan told the public that the only reportable action was that the council had given direction to the city attorney.
Residents in attendance said that after waiting two hours to hear the council’s decision, that response was confusing and provided no explanation about what had happened or why. Citizens then asked who would be in charge as city manager now, but were told by Hallinan that the matter was confidential information.
Hallinan also interrupted the comments of several residents on Tuesday, including Alberto, to notify them that their statements were not relevant to that portion of the meeting. Several citizens have disputed this assertion.
Alberto said that during her conversations with Kang and Garcia, she discussed her complaints and requested that an evaluation of the attorney be put on the agenda. Council members were empathetic to her concerns, she said.
Hallinan defended his actions on Friday by stating that he has only been following the rules as supported by law. Having done his job for 27 years, there is no reason he would start lying to the people of Livingston, he said.
“It’s not supposed to be the Jerry Springer show and everybody gets to say whatever they like,” Hallinan said.
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 10:50 AM.
