Supervisors forced county’s top attorney to resign for a lesser job, official says in $1.5-million claim
Los Angeles County’s former top attorney has filed a $1.5-million claim as a precursor to a potential lawsuit over his alleged ouster from the position.
Mark Saladino abruptly announced his resignation in June after eight months on the job. He returned to the Department of Treasurer and Tax Collector in a management position below his old job as its director.
County officials and Saladino would not comment at the time about the reason for his departure.
In a claim filed Wednesday, Saladino alleged that the county supervisors “illegally terminated [him] from his job as County Counsel, without justification, and demanded that he immediately announce his resignation by issuing a false press release, in exchange for another county job with lesser benefits and less prestige that is not well suited to [his] education and career history.”
Saladino wrote that Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Hilda Solis, along with Louis “Skip” Miller, a private attorney representing the county, told him he was being terminated during a meeting June 10 and ordered him to issue a press release announcing his voluntary resignation in exchange for another county job.
The claim noted that Saladino had “serious disagreements” with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas “over various legal issues and his role as County Counsel” prior to that.
Ridley-Thomas cast the lone dissenting vote when Saladino was appointed to the top attorney job by an outgoing board majority in 2014.
The claim noted that Saladino had served as the treasurer and tax collector for more than 16 years and it was “humiliating for him to return to that department in a subordinate position.”
County spokesman David Sommers said the county would not comment because the issue is a “personnel matter and relates to potential litigation.”
Saladino could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Robert C. Baker, said he believed the supervisors had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open-meetings law, by terminating Saladino at a meeting held without public notice. Baker said Saladino is still employed by the county.
Joe Kelly, the current head of the department, declined to comment via email.
The claim was first reported by the Daily News of Los Angeles.
Twitter: @sewella
ALSO
L.A. County hires outside law firm to investigate probation chief
L.A. Unified to pay $320,000 settlement in teacher misconduct case
K-pop group denied entry at LAX on suspicion of being sex workers, band says
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
