Assistant city attorney returns to City Hall

Lolita Harper

City Council members voted unanimously in the wee hours Tuesday

morning to reinstate the assistant city attorney whom they had placed

on paid administrative leave a week earlier.

Steve Hayman, the city’s director of administrative services,

returned to an empty council chamber just after 1 a.m. to report the

actions of the closed session following the regular council meeting

-- a meeting that had no legal representation on the dais as a result

of the previous week.

Hayman said the council decided to rescind its previous action of

placing Assistant City Atty. Tom Woods on paid administrative leave.

Council members decided to refer the matter to City Manager Alan

Roeder, who technically oversees the second-highest legal position.

The city’s top two legal officials, Woods and City Atty. Jerry

Scheer, were temporarily removed from the office on Sept. 9 to allow

the City Council to scrutinize the legal department more carefully.

Council actions from the previous week also included an audit of the

city attorney’s office, a halt on the hiring of a specific outside

legal firm and the creation of a subcommittee, consisting of

councilwomen Libby Cowan and Karen Robinson, to further review the

office.

The actions stemmed from routine performance reviews of Woods and

Scheer and are considered personnel matters. Any details of the

closed session are therefore classified and council members are not

permitted to comment on them.

Council members voted 4 to 1, with Councilman Chris Steel

dissenting, to release this prepared statement: “The City Council

continues to actively pursue changing how the city attorney’s office

functions.”

Woods is considered a classified employee and is therefore under

Roeder’s direction. Roeder said the council’s decision to return

Woods to the office and to refer the matter to the city manager was

“proper procedure,” considering the existing chain of command.

It will also be nice to have the seasoned attorney back in the

office, he said.

“It helps to move things forward and restore an important element,

in terms of knowledge, to the legal department,” Roeder said.

Woods worked for Costa Mesa from 1977 to 1989, when he was the

city attorney, with Scheer as the assistant. He left, only to come

back 10 years later to assist Scheer, who had garnered the top legal

position.

Scheer -- who has been with the city for almost 16 years and

reports directly to the City Council -- will be paid during his time

off, which is expected to last a minimum of three weeks. City

officials said being placed on paid administrative leave was rare,

but does not denote any allegation of wrongdoing.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.