SANTA ANA : Council Seeks Advice on City Atty. Cooper

Four members of the City Council decided in a closed meeting Monday to ask the state attorney general’s advice before they take any further action against their city attorney, whom they moved to suspend last week.

The four called the meeting after City Atty. Edward J. Cooper came to work in violation of their order to take a two-month paid leave.

Council members John Acosta, Ron May, Miguel A. Pulido and Richards L. Norton decided to ask the state attorney general whether they have the authority to place their appointed employees on administrative leave.

Cooper said he refused to obey because the city charter requires five votes to force him out, temporarily or permanently.

Mayor Daniel H. Young and council members Patricia A. McGuigan and Daniel E. Griset, all of whom back Cooper, boycotted Monday’s meeting.

Young and McGuigan left before the vote last Tuesday to suspend Cooper, and Griset was absent.

“It’s disgusting,” Young said Monday afternoon. “The whole business is rather seedy and illegal. I don’t intend to waste my time with it. I think these four people are heading down a course that could cost the city a lot of money.”

The four council members have not given a reason for their action. But Young said that Cooper has prosecuted or sued three of them as part of his duties of city attorney and that their action is retaliatory.

Cooper filed misdemeanor criminal charges against Acosta for allegedly operating an illegal storage yard. He also has filed civil suits against Pulido and Norton. A hearing on the case against Norton is set for Nov. 9. If Cooper had been suspended last week, he would not be in office for the hearing.

That timing is no coincidence, Young said. The four council members are taking their action “right when we’re in the middle of the most contentious part of this lawsuit,” he said. “It seems to me Mr. Norton is concerned about his litigation, and he has found three allies to help him.”

The litigation concerns a swap meet that the city attempted to bar Norton from holding at Santa Ana Stadium, resulting in a suit by Norton and a countersuit by the city.

Cooper said he also believes that the suspension is in retaliation for his legal actions against three of them.

“Mr. Acosta announced in 1988 that he was going to lead a charge to have me ousted from office,” Cooper said. “He believes that time came when Mr. Norton came on the council.”

Norton said he could not comment on reasons. The four have agreed not to discuss the matter publicly.