Lemon Grove Council member Liana LeBaron filed a complaint against City Manager Lydia Romero and City Attorney Kristine Steinke in November 2021.
In the complaint, LeBaron alleged the city manager and city attorney created a hostile work environment for her and accused both of professional misconduct. LeBaron alleged both falsely accused her of bullying and intimidating staff, denied access to public records. The complaint was referred to outside counsel.
After several records request through the city, The East County Californian received a copy of the original complaint with no text or comments on where the investigation was in process.
In further records requests, on June 21, outside legal counsel Rebecca T. Green of Richards Watson Gershon Law, responded to a June 13 request stating that the City retained an independent investigator to investigate the allegations made by Council member LeBaron.
“The investigator attempted numerous times to schedule an interview with Council member LeBaron, but Council member LeBaron refused to participate in the investigation. Therefore, at the direction of City Council, the investigation was terminated,” wrote Green.
In an email exchange, LeBaron said she did refuse to participate in the investigation.
“The city hired an investigator previously supervised by the City Manager and City Attorney on a separate matter to investigate my complaints against the City Manager and City Attorney. There is no way for the investigator to be objective in my case if she is investigating her supervisors on another matter. Because of that conflict of interest and lack of objectivity, I refused to meet with this investigator. I remain willing to meet with any bona fide neutral investigator who has no conflicts of interest,” wrote LeBaron.
After receiving this information on June 23, the Californian sent another records request after going through agendas and minutes posted on the City’s website asking who the independent investigator was, and when and how the City Council directed the investigator to terminate the investigation. The city clerk responded on June 23 stating the request was being forwarded to outside counsel as “I have limited knowledge of this matter ant the city manager and city attorney were not involved in the process,” wrote City Clerk Audrey Malone.
On June 23, Green responded by email stating: “I want to clarify that I am not the investigator in this matter. I am outside legal counsel. The investigator was Debra Reilly. At this time, the City has no additional information to provide.”
At a special Lemon Grove City Council meeting on March 8, Council discussed a resolution condemning LeBaron of misconduct in and outside of meetings, alleging the LeBaron engaged in “disruptive, obstructive, and inappropriate behavior at City Council meeting, including shouting over her colleagues when not recognized by the mayor, interrupting the mayor and fellow council members without being recognized, shouting about non-agendized matters during City Council meeting and during meeting recesses, and failing to heed the direction of the mayor in her attempts to control the order of the meeting causing undue delay and unnecessary distraction from City business, and making baseless accusations of fraud, embezzlement, and abuse aimed at her colleagues and staff.”
More than 25 people spoke at that meeting, most in support of LeBaron. The original motion to adopt the resolution failed with LeBaron, and council members George Gastil and Jennifer Mendoza voting no. A motion to table the resolution and find another solution was passed with Mayor Raquel Vasquez and Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Jones voting no.
