PORT HUENEME : Councilman Lashes Out at Colleague

In the latest outburst in a simmering feud, Port Hueneme City Councilman James Daniels lashed out at council colleague Toni Young for releasing what he called a confidential memo in which the city manager chastised Young.

Daniels ended the Wednesday night council meeting by reading a lengthy statement in which he denied that the council had treated Young, a first-term councilwoman elected on a reform platform, as a council outsider.

Responding calmly, Young faced Daniels and apologized for offending him. But she said she does consider herself a political outsider on the council and that tension does exist between her and the other four council members, all of whom have served at least eight years.

In an additional salvo Thursday, Young sent City Manager Richard Velthoen and the council a memorandum accusing Velthoen of hiding city business from residents and saying that any information exchanged between city officials should be made available to the public.

“When you write letters, or memos, or any other correspondence to the council or copies to the council, or send it in the mail, it becomes a public document,” Young wrote. “It is our local government in action.”

Young’s memorandum to Velthoen and Daniels’ criticism came a week after Young’s release of a Velthoen memo in which the city manager threatened the councilwoman with “unpleasant” consequences if she continued to discuss his possible firing publicly.

She has said she was joking about that.

Velthoen, who declined to comment about Young’s latest memo, did say that he was not surprised with Daniels’ action and was thankful for his support.