San Gabriel Valley : Ex-Mayor to Leave Council 4 Months Early

Former Bradbury mayor and Councilman John H. Richards is leaving the City Council four months shy of the end of his third term.

Richards, a respected molecular biologist at Caltech, is resigning effective Jan. 16 after serving on the council since 1984. His term is up in April.

“I’ve got to be out of town for a couple meetings in the spring, so I thought it was better that someone else represent the district,” said Richards, who was mayor of the city of 830 from 1986 to 1992.

The council expects to appoint an immediate replacement for Richards at its Jan. 16 meeting, City Manager Keene Wilson said. The council is accepting applications for the seat, which represents the Bradbury Estates district, he said. The seat is one of three that will be up for election in April.

Richards said the council’s greatest accomplishment during his tenure was consistently balancing the budget and maintaining reasonable reserves.

A low point, he said, came in 1994, when it was revealed that then-longtime City Manager Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire spent $84,000 of city money over many years on personal luxury items. Vollaire was sentenced to two years in state prison.

Richards unwittingly pre-signed city checks on a regular basis during his tenure as mayor that were then signed by the treasurer and then Vollaire, who without the knowledge of others used the funds for her own purchases.