Azusa : Adjournment Quiets Mayor

For the second time in five months, the City Council on Monday ended a meeting early to silence Mayor Eugene Moses. The council adjourned on a split vote as Moses was denouncing Councilman Bruce Latta for allegedly trying to promote construction of a plant in Azusa to convert sewage sludge into mulch.

Councilmen James Cook and Lucio Cruz joined Latta in voting to adjourn the meeting over the mayor’s objections. The adjournment came near the end of the council agenda. The three council members last November walked out of a council meeting in another dispute with the mayor, forcing adjournment of the meeting for lack of a quorum.

Latta said Wednesday that he and City Administrator Lloyd Wood had had lunch with a mortgage banker and officials from a company interested in building a sludge treatment plant. He said, however, that the plant would require 100 acres and there are no suitable sites in Azusa.

Latta said Wood properly wrote a memo informing the mayor and other council members about the meeting, but then the mayor put the matter on the council agenda for discussion despite the fact that there was no action to be taken.