A 4-0 vote by the city council to retain Brian Haddix as Sanger city manager was greeted by a standing, shouting, applauding ovation from the approximately 250 who showed up for this evenings special city council meeting. The mayor, Joshua Mitchell, refused to participate in the closed-door session where the decision was made. He accused the three council members who called the meeting with only one item on the closed session agenda - firing the city manager - Raul Cantu, Humberto Garza and Eli Ontiveros - of a violation of the Brown open meeting law. The unanimous decision by the three and council member Tony Pacheco who joined them in the closed-door meeting, was reached in minutes. All the speakers during the public forum portion of the meeting which lasted more than an hour blasted Cantu, Garza and Ontiveros and praised Haddix. The three who called the special meeting which was announced only 24-hours ahead of time, were accused by speaker after speaker of racism, violation of the Brown Act and having personal agendas that had nothing to do with the good of the city. Many asked them to give reasons for the sudden, unexpected move to fire Haddix. Garzas comment that it was a personnel matter that shouldnt be discussed in open session drew loud boos from the hostile audience. Several speakers threatened to mount a recall effort against anyone who voted to fire Haddix. The meeting was covered by Fresno area newspaper, radio and TV.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 05:36:45 +0000
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