Yorba Linda Mum on Council Vote

In appealing a ruling that it violated the Brown Act, Yorba Linda’s City Council may have broken the same law again, an attorney for a state watchdog group said on Friday.

The council fired City Manager Arthur C. Simonian last fall in a closed session. He was reinstated in November after Orange County Superior Court Judge John Wooley ruled that the council violated the state’s open-meeting law by not giving proper public notice of the scheduled vote on Simonian’s ouster. Thursday night, the council authorized special counsel Henry Kraft to appeal that ruling, but the city clerk’s office reported that no action was taken.

“They must publicly report any approval to seek appellate review,” said Terry Francke, an attorney for the California First Amendment Coalition in Sacramento. “In my mind, it is a clear violation when a city neglects to report such decisions immediately after the closed session.”

Council members John M. Gullixson and Barbara W. Kiley said on Friday that the council voted 3-1 in closed session to proceed with the appeal. Mayor Ken Ryan voted with them, they said, Councilman Henry W. Wedaa voted against, and Councilman Mark Schwing was absent.

“We should have reported it later,” Kiley said. “We did vote.”

Kraft confirmed that he filed the appeal Friday with the 4th District Court of Appeals in Santa Ana. Action on it could take as long as two years, he said. He would not comment further except to say that he would not have taken action without the council’s direction. “I’m not a loose cannon,” he said.

Simonian, the city manager for 27 years, has been on paid administrative leave since the November ruling that reinstated him. The council fired him Sept. 7, alleging financial malfeasance. It also filed a lawsuit against him seeking $300,000 in bonuses that the council alleges he paid himself without proper authorization. Simonian has denied any wrongdoing and is suing to get his job back.