HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-16-2025_Open Session_Brown, Hardy_rec'd too late for previous regular meeting
April 2, 2025
To Mayor and City Counci
From Hardy Brown
City Attorney Sonia Carvalho (BBK) must be Replaced
On the city council agenda for 4/2/25 in closed session is item C) PUBLIC
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS (Pursuant to
Government Code Section 54957) Titles: City Attorney, City Clerk;
This means Sonia Carvalho; City Attorney annual performance evaluation is up before
the council. It is in my opinion, she and BBK Law Firm should be rated Unsatisfactory to
Unacceptable, and her contract should not be renewed period.
Why do I say that, It was at the February 21, 2024 5:00 pm Special Council Meeting
when the council was discussing agenda item 21: Downtown San Bernardino Property
Based Improvement District (PBID) Feasibility Study and Formation Process, to see if
the council wanted to have that item placed on the Regular Council Meeting at 7:00 pm
which was later that evening.
As the discussion went on it did not bring clarity to the issue of who and how items
would be placed on the council meetings agenda, so Councilmember Ted Sanchez
sought a legal opinion from City Attorney, Sonia Carvalho of Best Best & Krieger LLP
(BBK). Attorney Carvalho responded to the council with these words; first you must
remember the voters voted in a City Charter, “City Manager” form of government that
gives the City Manager control over the agenda and it is up to him what goes on agenda ,
end of quote.
I knew that was wrong but went to the City Charter to double check the proper wording
and this what it states; according to the New City Charter it is called a “Council-
Manager” form of government. What Attorney Carvalho told the council was not true at
all. It put the control and authority in the hands of the Council.
Now while the statement by Attorney Carvalho was partially true; it is a “Half -truth”.
And the dictionary defines Half-truth as “a statement that mingles truth and falsehood
with deliberate intent to deceive”. This is what she was doing to please Charles
Montoya and deceive the council. On the streets in our city, these people are called
liars.
So, I called her out on her explanation at the next meeti ng, while quoting the City Chater
and to clear up the statement under the City Manager’s Charles Montoya website
statement, which he later corrected before they FIRED him.
The community has lost trust in her and what she says and then later during this fiasco
that led to the hiring of Montoya, then she advised the council to give Steve Carriga n a
non-employee $800,000 dollars to settle a case without investigating his allegation of
racial discrimination for being white and not being hired as the City Manager. A small
investigation into Carrigan allegation would have revealed that ALL prior City Managers
hired in the history of the city were white and mostly males, except for one, Charles
McNeely a Black Male.
Thank you
Hardy Brown