City Attorney Performance Evaluation Thursday

As we noted here, the Claremont City Council will do a performance review of City Attorney Sonia Carvalho in a closed session meeting this Thursday, November 29, at 5:30 p.m. There will be a short public session promptly at 5:30 where public comment may be given before the council recesses into closed session. Since it is a special meeting, comment is limited to the subject of the meeting, City Attorney performance. (the City Manager performance evaluation is on the same agenda, and may also be addressed.)

The ever-precise Mayor Yao announced last night at council that the time for the closed session meeting on Thursday will be six p.m. We reviewed the tape to be sure, and that's what he said. We don't know if this is a change or not. Be ready, if you get there at 5:30, to wait until six due to "Brown Act notice confusion".

If we were to be in attendance, we would ask Council to consider the intemperate and inflammatory letter the City Attorney wrote to Google in response to our very restrained and completely legal posting of public employee compensation information. We might also ask why on earth the City Attorney did not advise the City that the language in the Johnson's Pasture deed might--just possibly--jeopardize the $1,000,000 State grant. Brilliant legal work

And of course, Sonia Carvalho was in the big leather chair all during the time when the City was fiddling and not executing its vegetation management plan in the Wilderness Park causing Palmer Canyon to burn. The bill for that: $17.5 millon, the largest settlement ever paid by the City's insurer. Also, brill. leg. wrk.

We are feeling a Disturbance in the Force in the City Attorney's office. It may not reach all the way to Carvalho--yet--but we are getting the vibes that people under her at BBK are heading for the exits.

It's always good to have your art to fall back on. Fortunately, Sonia Carvalho can keep putting groceries on the table by returning to her roots as a singer in a Kansas City bluegrass band, shown in this old photo from her photo album: