Link to Random Lengths Story, "Council Seeks Way out of Lawsuit," (Jan. 11-24, 2018)

Link to online version of my Random Lengths News story, "Council Seeks Way Out of Lawsuit," (Jan. 11-24, 2018):

http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/2018/01/council-seeks-way-lawsuit/?ct=t%28Random+Update%3A+When+it+Rains+it+Pours+--+Pot%21%29

Should the link be down, the lead and partial text of article follows:

Carson City Council’s vote allows members to hold two offices at once

By Lyn Jensen, Carson Reporter

Carson Mayor Albert Robles is due in Los Angeles Superior Court Jan. 25 for a case rooted in two issues — his refusal to resign from the other elected office he occupies with the Water Replenishment District of Southern California and questions about where he lives.

California law prohibits elected officials from holding two offices simultaneously, with one exception; the state approves of local government bodies crafting ordinances to work around that law.

So with Robles’ court date looming, the Carson City Council used its Dec. 19 meeting to provide  Robles with a legal loophole. It passed an ordinance — and an urgency ordinance containing identical language — that allows council members to simultaneously as “elected or appointed officers” on sergeral other specific governing bodies, including the Water Replenishment District.

At the meeting, City Attorney Bill Wynder said the action would “create a mechanism which will avoid the appearance of incompatibility of holding multiple offices in a manner recognized by law.”

Court documents declared the Los Angeles County District Attorney wants to remove Robles from his water board seat arguing the “opportunity for conflict between the offices is formal and constitutional, as the jurisdictions overlap.”

“The district attorney wants to pursue this complaint against me because she happens to favor the oil industry,” said Robles during the meeting.