Gardena council orders public summary, sets censure hearing after investigator finds misconduct by council member Wanda Love

The Gardena City Council on June 24 directed release of an executive summary of an outside investigatory report and set a censure hearing for Councilmember Wanda Love after a closed-session review of potential litigation involving city personnel.

The council voted to waive portions of attorney-client privilege so the executive summary could be read in public; it ordered that the full investigation report be prepared for public disclosure with employee names redacted and available on or before Aug. 8, 2025. In a separate vote the council set a censure hearing for Love at its regular meeting on Aug. 12, 2025.

Why it matters: The actions follow an outside investigator’s findings that, by a preponderance of the evidence, Love made false and misleading statements about the Department of Recreation and Human Services, sought preferential treatment for Chamber-related requests, discussed internal personnel matters with subordinates and disclosed the identities or details of staff complaints. Those conclusions formed the factual basis for the council’s directive to make a redacted version of the report public and to pursue a censure process.

The investigator’s written summary, as reported to the council, lists incidents across 2023 in which Love allegedly sought expedited approvals, criticized staff publicly, pressed department directors at public meetings about budgets and staffing, and complained on social media after a community event — at one point posting, according to the report, "it's like I wasn't even there," suggesting she felt excluded from event photos.

The council’s closed-session actions, as reported aloud after the session, included three separate votes: a motion, made by the mayor and seconded by Councilmember Paulette Francis, to approve waiver of attorney-client privilege with reductions and to direct the city attorney to read the executive summary (vote recorded in the meeting minutes as "4 2 0"); a second motion, made by Councilmember Mark Henderson and seconded by the mayor, that the council voted 4–0 to approve a waiver of privilege related to the investigator’s final report dated May 27, 2025; and a third motion, made by Mayor Tasha Serta and seconded by Henderson, that passed 3–1 to set a censure hearing for Love on Aug. 12, 2025 (Serta, Mayor Pro Tem Roni Tanaka and Henderson voting yes; Francis voting no). Councilmember Wanda Love was recused from item 2(a) and did not participate in the closed-session votes.

The investigator who prepared the report concluded that employee witness testimony was reasonable and verifiable based on evidence and interviews. The council directed that the redacted investigation report be released to the public on or before Aug. 8, 2025; the council also directed that city staff preserve the identities of employees in the public version to protect their privacy and to reduce the risk of retaliation.

What the city said: The closed-session report named special counsel Scott Tiedemann of the law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore as coordinating counsel and credited outside investigator Jeffrey Love with preparing factual findings. The city also identified Diana Schner in Human Resources as a recipient of the investigative materials delivered to the city attorney's office.

Next steps: The council’s Aug. 12, 2025 meeting will include a censure hearing on the charges the investigator sustained. The executive summary will be read in public as directed, and the redacted full report will be posted by the date ordered by the council.