Bell Gardens : Ex-Manager’s Claims Against 4 on City Council Dismissed
A Superior Court judge in Norwalk has dismissed claims against four Bell Gardens City Council members named as defendants in a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in July by former Bell Gardens City Manager Claude L. Booker.
Judge James W. Edson did rule, however, that the city will remain a defendant in Booker’s lawsuit, which charges that the council violated the former city manager’s $124,000-a-year contract when it fired him in April. Booker’s contract was to expire in July, 1994. He was fired after new council members Josefina Macias, George Deitch, Frank Duran and Rodolfo Garcia took office.
Booker’s suit claimed that the four did not act in good faith during termination negotiations held after the election. Booker, a political foe of the current council majority, says he was offered six months’ severance pay but has been paid nothing since rejecting the offer.
The judge also ruled that the former city official is not entitled to unspecified punitive damages requested in his complaint.
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