Montebello Councilwoman could have settled lawsuit against the city she’s elected to represent for $25,000. She ended up with $130,000

Here’s a councilwoman who is willing to fight for what she believes in…

Monetary demands in Montebello settlement increase over wording on plaque
By Amanda Baumfeld, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/15/2009 08:19:03 PM PDT

A $130,000 lawsuit filed by City Councilwoman Kathy Salazar could have been settled for $25,000, but the parties could not agree on the wording for a city plaque, according to court documents obtained Wednesday.

Claiming she was wrongfully booted from the Citizen’s Patrol Group, which is administered by the Police Department, Salazar filed the suit in 2007. She named the city and former Police Chief Garry Couso-Vasquez as defendants.

Before her November 2007 re-election to the council, Salazar asked for $25,000, reinstatement into the patrol group and to be recognized as its sole founder, according to a statement of facts filed by the city and agreed to by both sides.

The city wanted to list her

The settlement agreement and other court documents describing the negotiations on a plaque as a co-founder, according to the documents.
“The city kept saying, `no, no, no,’ and the price kept going up, up, up,” Salazar said. “We went to mediation three times because I just wanted to finish this.

“It was important to me to be named as founder and to be reinstated. The money thing was for the attorney.”

Under the latest settlement agreement drafted June 29, Salazar would be awarded $130,000, reinstated into the Citizen’s Patrol Group and recognized as the sole founder.

Salazar would get $50,000, and $80,000 would go to her attorney, Michael McGill of Lackie, Dammeier and McGill. The firm also represents the Montebello Police Officers Association.

Read more.

Majestic’s letter (yes, the actual one) blasting Walnut

Forgive us.

Thanks to a mishap, we didn’t post a copy of a letter pertaining to a story we wrote. Last week, the company hoping to build a National Football League stadium complex in the City of Industry presented this letter to the Walnut City Council, which has sued the developer. The letter refuted, among other things, claims made against the company, Majestic Realty, and its project.

An issue emerged the day following Wednesday’s city council meeting. After this newspaper filed a public records request for a copy of the letter Thursday, Walnut said it was consulting its attorney concerning the release of the letter, which included a confidential attachment, because of its pending litigation. (The attachment, according to the letter, documented Walnut’s settlement items in the now-terminated negotiations with Majestic.)

Majestic, however, provided this newspaper with a copy. And now, so do you. (See the text of the letter after the jump.)

Walnut has ten days from the public records request to make a decision of the release. So, we’ll see what emerges. But here are two facts to consider: The letter was presented at a public meeting and the first page of it was read publicly.
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