Special El Monte meeting to focus on allegations against board member – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

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El Monte City Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday to begin a formal censorship process against Mayor Pro-Tem Victoria Martinez-Muela over allegations she improperly accepted financial aid from a lobbyist to help pay breast augmentation surgery, an official said on Sunday.

Martinez-Muela is accused of accepting $ 1,000 from lobbyist Sigrid Lopez at a time when state law limited gifts to officials to $ 460 from a single source. The city councilor reportedly did not disclose the payment as a gift or loan on her financial interest disclosure form, as required by state law.

Martinez-Muela did not immediately respond to a request for comment from City News Service on Sunday, but she said in previous news reports that she said there was nothing improper about the payment because it had nothing to do with city affairs.

El Monte canceled his Tuesday August 3 city council meeting after Police Chief David Reynoso tested positive for COVID-19 last weekend and council members and employees who were in contact with him have decided to self-quarantine.

The meeting was postponed to Wednesday. Reynoso said in a telephone interview last week that he had been showing symptoms of COVID-19 since Friday, July 30 and that he had tested positive for the coronavirus over the weekend, even though he was fully vaccinated. He said he had not been told if the virus was the delta variant.

City officials requested that the meeting be canceled because they had been in contact with Reynoso prior to his diagnosis and therefore wanted to self-quarantine for at least 10 days, Martinez said.

The Southern California News Group and the Los Angeles Times reported that former El Monte mayor Andre Quintero filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office about the payment in May. Martinez-Muela called his action an attempt to deflect attention from concerns about a possible conflict of interest in a city security contract and alleged wrongdoing in the awarding of cannabis store licenses.

The vote scheduled for Wednesday stems from a formal written request submitted by City Councilor Martin Herrera and City Councilor Maria Morales, and follows last week’s special council meeting in which a 3-0 majority decided to move the process forward.

Herrera said Lopez accused Martinez-Muela in a signed statement to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office of accepting cash and in-kind gifts in excess of state contribution limits and failing to report them on the required forms and financial statements. He added that Martinez-Muela would not have recused herself during the votes to extend the contract of Lopez’s former employer.

The city’s censorship process requires submitting a written request from one or more council members to the city clerk. An independent investigation is then conducted to determine sufficient evidence to justify a formal disciplinary hearing. If a hearing is held, the accused council member is allowed to refute the evidence or testimony against him.

After a hearing is held, the hearing officer will submit a report to city council with a recommendation, and council would then decide whether formal censorship is warranted.

City News Service contributed to this report

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