Ex-councilwoman claims Costa Mesa violated state law with elected-mayor discussion

Former Costa Mesa Councilwoman Wendy Leece has asked the Orange County district attorney’s office to look into whether the City Council violated the state open-meetings law last week when discussing the possibility of having a mayor elected by public vote.

Leece sent a letter to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas asking for an investigation of whether council members violated the Ralph M. Brown Act during their July 5 meeting.

The council voted 3-2 at that meeting, with members Katrina Foley and Sandy Genis opposed, to endorse creating an elected mayor position as part of a plan to change to a council election system with six voting districts.

“Neither the July 5 agenda nor the agenda report mentioned that the City Council would be discussing and possibly voting that night to put an elected at-large mayor on the November ballot,” Leece said in a statement this week.

Leece contends that deprived the public of the opportunity to review the concept before the meeting or to comment on specifics.

The city believes no violation occurred, according to spokesman Tony Dodero.

“According to our attorneys, there was no Brown Act violation,” he said Wednesday.

The July 5 council agenda included four options for splitting the city into voting districts, including the six-district option the council eventually chose.

The agenda didn’t specify that the six-district option would include an elected mayor, though an attached consultant’s report did reference the concept.

The council voted Tuesday to officially place the plan on November’s ballot.

If the city is found to have violated the Brown Act, the council would have to give the public another chance to comment on the item and then re-vote on it, according to Leece.

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Luke Money, lucas.money@latimes.com

Twitter: @LukeMMoney