Manager Sues Mayor Over Release of Report

City Manager Arthur C. Simonian, fired amid allegations of financial improprieties and then reinstated by court order, filed a lawsuit Friday against Mayor John M. Gullixson for releasing a confidential report on Simonian’s conduct.

Simonian awarded himself more than $300,000 in benefits and extra compensation from 1987 through 1998 without the City Council’s approval, according to the report from a special investigator hired by the city. In his lawsuit against Gullixson, Simonian alleges that release of the report was an invasion of privacy and an infliction of emotional distress.

Gullixson released the three-part report Dec. 7 against the advice of the city’s attorneys, two months after the council rejected the mayor’s resolution to make the report public.

Simonian was fired by the City Council on Sept. 7. On Nov. 24, Orange County Superior Court Judge John C. Wooley ruled the firing improper and ordered Simonian back on the payroll. The judge’s ruling was based in part on an affidavit submitted by Councilman Mark Schwing, a staunch defender of Simonian. In the affidavit, Schwing stated that the accusations against Simonian were discussed during a confidential session the council had with its attorney.

Gullixson, who is also an attorney, said that, by allowing Schwing to discuss confidential council meetings, the judge had opened a “Pandora’s box” that gave the mayor the authority to release the council’s confidential report on Simonian.

Simonian’s lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, alleges that the released information included Simonian’s tax status, Social Security number and home address. That information was subsequently published in a press report.