Maywood Councilwoman Censured by Colleagues

The Maywood City Council has voted to censure Councilwoman Elvira Moreno De Guzman for allegedly making unauthorized requests to the city’s police chief and threatening to fire him.

The council voted 4-1 Tuesday night, with Moreno De Guzman dissenting, to reprimand the councilwoman over her alleged behavior in an altercation in December with Chief Rick Lopez.

According to Lopez, Moreno De Guzman swore at him and threatened to have him removed after he told her she could not enter the police station’s dispatch room.

Lopez said he had just received a letter from the state Department of Justice telling him that a complaint had been lodged about the councilwoman entering the room on another occasion.

“She was really brazen,” Lopez said Wednesday. “She used explicit words toward me, and it got to the point that she . . . threatened to fire me.”

But Moreno De Guzman disputed Lopez’s version of events. She said she became upset but never threatened the chief. She said her council colleagues did not grant her a fair hearing.

Rather, she said, the censure vote marks an attempt by Councilman Tomas Martin to discredit her just as the two are campaigning for reelection. “The censure is trying to defame my character,” she said.

Martin could not be reached for comment. But his son, Thomas, who also serves on the council, disagreed.

“It is a political year and everybody knows that, but she caused this whole situation upon herself,” he said. “The chief was very angry and adamant in his letter.”

According to the censure resolution, Moreno De Guzman was reprimanded for violating a municipal code section that prohibits council members from directly giving orders to city employees unless doing so through the city manager during a council meeting.

A day after the censure vote, Martin and Councilman Salvador A. Contreras said they could not remember what order the councilwoman allegedly made. Mayor Margarita Ruvalcaba did not return a page.