Gates says DOJ letter proves he was not fired after all
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Good morning! It is Wednesday, Nov. 25 and the turkey is defrosting in the fridge. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s look at some of the most recent Orange County news and events.
So, it’s been head-spinning for those who have been watching the movements of former Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates this year, especially over the past couple of weeks.
You might recall Gates left his elected Surf City post in February to take a job with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration. Then, this month, he announced he’d resigned so he could spend more time with his family and had been rehired to work as an assistant city attorney back in his hometown.
That news was just sinking in when Gates was alleged in an O.C. Register report to have been fired for cause from the DOJ, where he’d served in the Civil Rights Division. According to the report, a source said Gates had created a hostile work environment in Washington, D.C., and was derogatory toward women.
That, he told the Daily Pilot, came as a surprise to him, because he had most definitely resigned. “Not a single complaint was ever brought to my attention by anybody while I was there, whether informal or formal,” he said. “While I was there, I was a consummate professional, so I was pretty shocked by this [news report].”
Things were not looking rosy for his reemployment in Huntington Beach, at least for a handful of days, after a press release was issued out of City Hall announcing the allegations he was fired were being taken seriously and were under investigation.
His lawyer threatened to sue the city to compel them honor the contract Gates had signed that would return him to his familiar office. So a closed-door session of the City Council convened this past Friday to focus on that development. No announcement was made out of that session, but, just as reporter Matt Szabo was poised to file his story bringing everyone up to date in the saga, there was yet another surprise.
Gates, who has said he will run for the top job in the city attorney’s office again next year, shared an email from the DOJ with Szabo after Friday’s City Council session, saying that his employment record would show that he resigned.
“Written by John Buchko, director of Operational Management for the Civil Rights Division, the email stated the division had rescinded his termination and would remove from Gates’ personnel record any previous reference to his being terminated,” Szabo reports.
He was ‘vindicated,’ Gates told the reporter, and he was returning to City Hall after all.
How might the story continue to unfold in coming days or weeks? We’ll keep you posted.
MORE NEWS
• The manager overseeing fire dispatch operations serving several O.C. cities recommended earlier this year that a contractor be hired to review recorded 911 calls. Given the green light, this manager, Brenda Carrion, hired her niece to do the job, raising eyebrows about the propriety of such a move. Curiously, the niece did not form her business until two days prior to receiving her aunt’s nod for the contract, which paid $97,500 annually. My colleague Gabriel San Román took a deep look at this for TimesOC. Get this tidbit he uncovered: One of the two other bidders was also a confirmed relative of Carrion’s and the third was either a relative or friend, based on San Roman’s investigation. It’s a good read!
• Ashley Anderson, a member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education since first being elected in 2018, is the target of a movement to pressure her to resign. It came about after a former candidate for the same board reported this month on social media what he’d discovered after he investigated a report that Anderson had been involved in a car accident in December 2022, the same night she was sworn in as board president. He learned she had left the scene of the crash before police could get there and he began digging into the case. This seems like a sudden push for Anderson to step down, three years after the fact. Here’s the Daily Pilot report on the matter after assistant editor Sara Cardine looked into it.
• O.C. has a new park! It’s somewhat compact, at 2.5 acres, but Crawford Canyon Park in North Tustin boasts two nature-themed playgrounds, exercise stations and picnic tables, as well as water fountains, benches and disabled parking.
• The San Clemente City Council last week discussed the possibility of U.S. Customs and Border Protection operating a maritime surveillance system to keep an eye out for vessels such as panga boats that could be smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country. Some residents who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting expressed their concerns about such an arrangement. The proposal will be “tightened up,” according to the TimesOC report, and return before the council for further deliberations.
• With its 100th anniversary approaching, the city of Laguna Beach is soliciting designs for an official city flag. One local, Chad Cooper, who designed such a banner more than a dozen years ago when he realized the city did not have one, suggested at a meeting of the City Council that they use his. But it’s been decided they will reach out to more artists to see what others might come up with.
COURTS
• A 30-year-old man, Ceferino Ascencion Ramos, who has been in jail since July 8, 2024, pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to 16 years and four months in prison for a hit-and-run collision in Garden Grove that killed Jacob Ramirez, 5, and injured members of the boy’s family. They had been on a bike ride and were on Haster Street when they were struck down, according to the City News Service report.
• Abdallah Hussein Ali Eid of Westminster pleaded guilty Nov. 19 to causing a deadly crash last March that killed a motorcyclist in Westminster. The victim was identified as 38-year-old Nathan Philip Perreault of Huntington Beach. (CNS)
• A choir teacher, Yesenia Navarro Garcia, pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to one month in jail for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student at Santa Ana High School. She will also have to register as a sex offender. (CNS)
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• San Juan Capistrano resident Bradley Gene Funk, 59, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder in the crash that killed a middle school student in Dana Point. Funk allegedly struck 13-year-old Luis Adrian Morales-Pacheco, who was standing on a safety island between Park Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive with his older bother at the time of the crash. Funk has two previous DUI convictions.
• Maria Rubalcava de Ruesga, 69, was struck and killed by a trash truck Nov. 19 while attempting to cross a street in Santa Ana, the L.A. Times reported. Officers responded around 7:56 a.m. to multiple reports regarding a collision near Shelton and Bishop streets, according to the Santa Ana Police Department. The driver of the truck remained on the scene and cooperated with police.
• This item and the following three are also from City News Service reports: At around 6:40 p.m. Sunday, a man pushing a wheelchair in the area of South Gilbert Street and West Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton was fatally injured when he was struck by a Toyota Prius. The motorist stayed at the scene and cooperated with police.
— Also in Fullerton, seven teens who were in a pickup truck were hospitalized after the truck crashed and rolled over on East Elm Avenue at around 11 p.m. Saturday. The eighth occupant, also a teenager, escaped without serious injuries.
— Anaheim police on Monday were seeking a hit-and-run driver who struck a 12-year-old boy on an e-bike in Anaheim, landing the victim in a hospital with a broken leg and concussion. The collision happened about 8:45 p.m. Sunday at Topeka and North streets, according to Anaheim police Sgt. Matt Sutter.
— A 25-year-old man from North Dakota lost his life Monday after the Honda motorcycle he was riding crashed into a Toyota Highlander on Talbert Avenue in Huntington Beach.
SPORTS
• Orange County’s Mater Dei (ranked No. 1) and Cypress girls’ volleyball teams won state championships Saturday, The Times reported. The Mater Dei Monarchs captured the Open Division state title, while the Cypress Centurions won the Division II championship.
• The water polo powerhouse team from Newport Harbor High School captured its record 16th CIF Southern Section title after beating San Diego Cathedral Catholic 14-12 on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. Over the past two years the Sailors have won 66 games and lost only two.
• In case you missed it and are a person who likes to plan ahead, the full schedule for the 2028 Summer Olympics was released earlier this month. As has been reported, Orange County will have its days in the international spotlight when the Honda Center hosts indoor volleyball and San Clemente welcomes the surfing competition.
• Some entrepreneurial sports moms from O.C., recently created the PomBell, a pom-pom combined with a cowbell for fans who want to shake both of them at the same time. It is catching on, according to this Daily Pilot feature.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The recent Coast Film and Music Festival featured singer-songwriter, filmmaker and surfer Jack Johnson as the headliner of two shows held on its closing weekend at the 2,600-seat Irvine Bowl on the grounds of the Festival of Arts. According to organizers, Johnson’s performances sold out less than two days after they were announced.
• Approximately 180 people broke bread together at the OASIS Senior Center in Corona del Mar last Wednesday for a pre-Thanksgiving holiday meal. Members of the Newport Beach City Council, including the mayor, were on hand to help serve the guests.
• Chef and restaurateur John Park has made a name for himself in Orange County as a partner on concepts like Toast Kitchen + Bakery and Tableau Kitchen and Bar, and now he has opened Rise Bagels in Irvine. It was born of a serendipitous moment when he was experimenting with dough for a pizza establishment and realized the same dough could be used to make some very tasty bagels, according to this feature on Park’s new endeavor.
CALENDAR
• The 35th Winter Fantasy show hosted by the Sawdust Art Festival is underway in Laguna Beach. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 21. Daily Pilot reporter Andrew Turner previewed it in this article; you can find a map of the grounds here.
• HomeAid Orange County Los Angeles is hosting its annual Holiday Meal Drive, collecting non-perishable food items to support individuals and families facing hunger and housing insecurity. The noprofit’s “Drive Thru Drop-Off” event in Orange County will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 5 at 308 Junco, Irvine.
• The 50th annual Dana Point Harbor Parade of Lights takes place the evenings of Dec. 12 through Dec.14. The Ocean Institute invites guests to enjoy the parade from either parties that are planned on the shore (there are a couple of different options) or aboard the R/V Sea Explorer for a special cruise experience. Tickets are available for purchase on the Ocean Institute’s website.
• The Festival Singers of Orange County will present “Welcome Winter Wonders!” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, at the Presbyterian Church of the Master, 26051 Marguerite Pkwy., Mission Viejo. Tickets to the seasonal sing-along event are $20 and are available here or at the door.
• “Happy Holidays: Selections from the Hilbert Christmas Collection” is on view in the Burra Family Community Room at Hilbert Museum of California Art through Jan. 11. It includes holiday paintings, prints, illustrations, movie art and vintage Christmas card designs. The museum is located at 167 N. Atchison St., Orange.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.