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Residents and commissioners press council over city attorney's hiring of outside counsel; council recesses to closed session
Summary
Public commenters and a planning commissioner told National City council members the city attorney hired outside counsel without full council approval and contradicted records-production claims; the council recessed to a closed session for the city attorney's performance evaluation and said it will report back at the meeting's end.
Multiple residents and a planning commissioner urged the National City Council on Thursday to scrutinize the city attorney's recent use of outside counsel and his handling of public-records matters, and the council recessed into closed session to review the attorney's performance.
Michael Aguirre, introduced during the meeting as a public commenter, said the city attorney "hired an outside lawyer to work on the public records case" without council approval and that the arrangement appeared to benefit the mayor and the mayor's assistant while leaving other council members without separate legal representation. "If there was gonna be outside counsel hired, there should have been outside counsel hired for the innocent members of the council," Aguirre said.
Alicia Morrison told the council she was raising "ethical concerns" and asked whether it was proper for the city attorney to "engage his former…
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