City council authorizes outside investigation into youth baseball dealings and community center incident

At a special city council meeting on March 23, 2026, a staff member reported out from closed session and said the council had authorized staff to engage a third-party investigator to examine concerns related to the city’s dealings with a youth baseball program and an incident at the community center.

The staff member said, “The city council has met in closed session to discuss concerns related to the city's dealings with serious youth baseball and an incident that occurred at the community center last week. The city council takes these matters seriously and has authorized staff to engage in a third party investigator to conduct an independent investigation into these matters and provide a recommendation to the council. The city council will not provide any further comment on these matters until the conclusion of the investigation.” The report was given during the meeting’s report-out following a closed session called under the California Government Code for anticipated litigation.

Council members had no public comments before the closed session; the presiding official read the rules for citizen communications and noted no in-person attendees, no online hands raised and no emails received. During roll call earlier in the meeting, Council Member Casey (District 1), Council Member Otero (District 3), Vice Mayor Martinez (District 4) and Mayor Lopez were recorded present; Council Member Vieira (District 2) was absent.

After the report-out, a staff member clarified that only one case had been discussed in closed session, not two, correcting an earlier remark.

The meeting record shows authorization to retain an independent investigator but does not include a public vote on the authorization or further factual details about the incident or the youth baseball program. The council’s only public statement at the meeting was that it would not provide further comment until the investigation is complete.