National City residents raise ethics concerns about city attorney hiring of outside counsel

Summary

During public comment at a National City Council meeting, multiple residents and local officials questioned whether the city attorney, Mr. Schultz, improperly retained a former law firm to handle public-records and ethics matters without clear council authorization and whether all responsive records were produced.

Several National City residents urged the City Council during public comment to scrutinize the city attorney's use of outside counsel and handling of public-records matters, raising ethics questions ahead of a closed-session performance review.

Speakers alleged that Mr. Schultz, the city attorney, had retained his former law firm — referred to in the meeting as Devaney Pate (DVMP) — to work on a public-records dispute without explicit council authorization, and that the city attorney's office had claimed all responsive records were produced despite evidence suggesting otherwise. Those issues were cited repeatedly as relevant to the council's upcoming closed-session evaluation.

Michael Aguirre, a resident, told the council that the city attorney "without approval from your counsel hired an outside lawyer to work on the public records case that your city attorney said the city had already produced all the records." Alicia Morrison, another commenter,…

National City residents raise ethics concerns about city attorney hiring of outside counsel

Summary

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