Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/kathy-ward/)
After a deadlocked vote two weeks ago over approving the budget, the council passed the budget and asked for monthly public reviews from city staff on city finances.
Since Mayor Dan Bane’s departure at the end of April, the council has voted 2-2 on over twenty decisions, including the adoption of a new budget.
The Sheriff’s Department is examining an event at the fire agency’s headquarters that triggered concerns about using government resources for political campaigning.
San Clemente claimed the Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), which manages toll roads in Orange County, illegally withheld public records, including payments totaling millions of dollars to lobbyists and public relation firms.
The request includes email and phone records from public officials’ personal devices.
City council members Tuesday did away with the policy, which had been in place for more than a decade, in response to a spate of ethics complaints filed against city officials in the run-up to last year’s election.
A group of residents did everything required to get a referendum on the November ballot to change the city’s electoral system from at-large to district-based voting. But the council pushed it off to the 2018 election.
While battles over creating local election districts usually revolve around disenfranchisement of minority groups, the contentious issue in this largely white seaside town is geography.
Laguna Beach voted unanimously Tuesday night to adopt a ban,
while Dana Point has asked for changes and another vote in the
future.