The El Monte City Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday evening to censure Mayor Pro Tempore Victoria Martinez-Muela. The councilmember is facing possible discipline over allegations that she improperly accepted money from a local lobbyist, which in turn was used to pay for breast augmentation surgery.
According to City News Service, Martinez-Muela is accused of accepting $1,100 from Sigrid Lopez, who at the time was working as a lobbyist for Southland Transit. Southland Transit is a bus company, which was seeking to renew its contract with the City of El Monte when the payment was made.
The payment in question was made in Dec. 2016. City records show that on Jan. 24, 2017, Martinez-Muela participated in a city council meeting in which there was vote to approve contract extensions with Southland Transit worth roughly $700,000. The city meeting minutes indicate that Martinez-Muela voted in favor of the contract, but video from the meeting shows she did not take part in the vote.
State law limited gifts to public officials to $460 from a single source at the time Lopez fronted the cash. Martinez-Muela did not disclose the payment as a gift or loan, which is also required under state law.
Wednesday’s meeting arises from a formal request submitted by councilmembers Martin Herrera and Maria Morales to investigate the payment.
“The initiation of the formal censure process does not denote a finding by the City Council of wrongdoing,” Herrera told City News Service. “It is an acknowledgment that the allegations brought to light, whether or not they are true, pose a serious threat to the public’s trust in their public officials and must be investigated.”
Martinez-Muela has not denied accepting money from Lopez, but she insists there was nothing improper about the transaction. She has characterized the payment as a loan from a friend, which had nothing to do with city business.
She told The Los Angeles Times that she and Lopez were once quite close and that the lobbyist in fact drove her to and from surgery and cared for her as she recovered.
To make matters more complicated, The Times reported that Martinez-Muela and Lopez no longer consider each other friends. The relationship “shattered” when Martinez-Muela voted against allowing retail sales of cannabis in El Monte, a cause “championed” by Lopez.
But The Times has reported that cash flow from Lopez to Martinez-Muela was not limited to surgery funding.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office is reviewing a complaint into the nature of their relationship filed by former El Monte Mayor Andre Quintero, presently a prosecutor with the L.A. City Attorney’s office.
In a declaration submitted by Lopez to investigators, the lobbyist admitted to paying Martinez-Muela an estimated $1,500 to help form an unspecified nonprofit and an additional $5,000 in expenses for a trip they took to Cuba together in 2017.
Former Mayor Quintero and Martinez-Muela have a documented history of contention, The Times reported.
Martinez-Muela has described the former mayor’s complaint to the D.A.’s office as an attempt to distract the public from concerns she herself has raised over a possible conflict of interest around a city security contract granted under his tenure, as well as alleged impropriety in the awarding of cannabis retail licenses.
Martinez-Muela has accused Quintero of colluding with Lopez to bring about the D.A.’s scrutiny and her possible censure by the city council.
El Monte’s censure process requires submission of a written request from one or more councilmembers to the office of the city clerk. The council will then conduct an independent investigation to determine whether there is enough evidence of wrongdoing to merit a formal disciplinary hearing.
If a hearing is held, Martinez-Muela will have the opportunity to hear and refute evidence and testimony against her. A hearing officer will then submit a report to the council with a recommendation, and the council will determine whether censure, or official reprimand on the record, is warranted.