Mayor Plays Santa, but Was She Naughty or Nice?

The mayor of Lynwood, the subject of a recall drive, gave all 200 city employees two days off during the Christmas holidays to thank them for their hard work.

Leticia Vasquez said she was just trying to get into the Christmas spirit. But her actions are now being investigated by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s Public Integrity Division as a possible misuse of funds, according to documents obtained by The Times.

While workers in the city of 71,600 cheered the extra time off, some City Council members were alarmed.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Councilwoman Maria Santillan said. “The first thing I thought was this could be a violation of the Brown Act,” the state’s open meeting law.

Lynwood is no stranger to investigations of its public officials. Last week, former Mayor Paul H. Richards was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for stealing more than $500,000 in a city contracts scheme.

And for the last three years, county prosecutors have been investigating two current council members and a former council member over their use of city-issued credit cards.

Some residents see Vasquez’s move as yet another headache.

“We’re lacking so many basic services as it is. She should have paid out of her own purse,” said Miguel Figueroa, a longtime Lynwood resident who has taken the city to court in the past to retrieve public documents. “To be throwing money around like that is ridiculous.”

City officials couldn’t provide a figure of how much the days off cost the city.

Vasquez floated the idea of the vacation days with Santillan and Councilman Fernando Pedroza during the Christmas employee party on Dec. 16 but it was never brought to the City Council for approval.

“I thought it would be considered at the next council meeting,” Pedroza said. “Next thing I knew, it was being announced.”

Employees received the Thursdays of Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 off with pay. The city is closed on Fridays.

In a statement to The Times, Vasquez said that “the intent of the Lynwood City Council when voting to give city employees two days off during the Christmas holidays was in good faith, and not to violate any laws.”

Some residents have launched a recall effort against Vasquez, saying there are discrepancies on her resume.

Vasquez denies any wrongdoing and believes the recall will fail.

Experts on city governments say the unscheduled holiday raises questions.

“You cannot simply give away public funds as a spontaneous afterthought,” said Terry Franke, general counsel of Californians Aware, an organization that advocates open government. “What is generally viewed as an unconstitutional gift of public funds is when a local government says to its workers, ‘You’ve had a pretty good year. We’re going to give you a 10% bonus.’ ”

Officials in other cities also expressed surprise.

“Wow,” said Bill Fujioka, Los Angeles’ city administrator. “We’ve given holidays for a host of different reasons. But we take those things to the table for negotiations.”

Fujioka said there are many factors that have to be considered before shutting down city facilities.

“When a city or county shuts down for a day, there’s a number of benefits that are lost. People can’t come in to do business. There’s a loss of productivity,” Fujioka said. “One would think, first and foremost, about the impact on the public. Because at the end of the day, they’re the ultimate employer, not the city.”

An attorney hired by Lynwood for labor and employment issues said the mayor and the city did nothing wrong.

“To call this a mistake I think is inappropriate,” Richard Kreisler said. “The city was trying to recognize the hard work of the employees.”

Kreisler said it wouldn’t be especially inconvenient for Lynwood residents to find City Hall closed on those two additional days.

“Any day City Hall is closed, whether it’s a Saturday or a Sunday or a day of the week, is an inconvenience to someone,” he said. “It might be that someone might only have Saturday or Sunday to go to City Hall.”

City officials pointed out that the council on Jan. 3 retroactively voted to approve the days off.

But longtime resident Figueroa said the city got it backward.

“There’s a saying in Spanish,” Figueroa said. “After the boy drowns, they cover the well.”