Here it is: Councilmen Chad West, Adam Bazaldua, and Jesse Moreno are asking for an investigation into why a memo they signed calling for a performance review of City Manager T.C. Broadnax was filed with the city secretary allegedly without their consent.
The three were part of a five signature memorandum with two of their colleagues—Councilwomen Paula Blackmon and Cara Mendelsohn—requesting “consideration and performance review of the City Manager, and related action.” Bazaldua posted to Facebook early Wednesday that “the mayor’s staff fabricated the memo” and told D that he “never gave any permission to utilize” his signature on said memo, which directed the mayor to place the item on a committee agenda and a briefing to the full council.
I covered all this earlier today, which you can read here. West told me that he was assured by the mayor’s office that what he signed would not be formally submitted to the city secretary without his consent. He said he never gave such consent. Moreno didn’t call me back or respond to my texts.
Here is what the three council members are asking to be investigated: they believe the mayor’s office “did not have the authority” to file their memo, and that the mayor’s chief of policy and communications, Tristan Hallman, told them it “should be held for discussion purposes only.” West and Bazaldua said they spoke with Hallman after said memo was filed and “[a]t no time during any of those conversations did Mr. Hallman inform either councilmember that the Memo had been filed.”
“We have serious concerns about the ethics associated with staff members using Councilmembers’ signatures for official documents without express authority from Councilmembers and ask that you initiate an investigation into the appropriateness and ethics associated with the filing,” Wednesday’s memo reads.
I asked Hallman earlier today whether the five members consented to their signatures being used on that memo with the understanding it could be filed with the city secretary. He said, “Yes.” Bazaldua and West tell a different story.
When asked for a comment, Mayor Johnson sent the following: “Enough. These are elected public officials who agreed to sign a memo. They need to stop trying to spin this and just own it.”
The mess gets messier. Their memo is below:
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