City Attorney Cristina Talley

City Attorney Cristina Talley

The Voice of OC reported last night on rumors that a majority of the city council has asked Talley to quit:

Rumors have been swirling since Tuesday night’s City Council meeting that the council majority has asked Talley to resign by 5 p.m. Thursday. 

After the council held a closed-door meeting and returned to open session Tuesday night, Talley had left and wasn’t present to give her usual closed session report.

Instead, City Manager Bob Wingenroth said there was nothing to report from the closed session.

Council members did not return phone calls or declined comment.

Talley reportedly delivered a letter to City Hall late Thursday afternoon.

Talley has been Anaheim City Attorney since April of 2009.

The VOC cited failure to properly notice — in the eyes of the court, that is — the GardenWalk agreement agenda in January of 2012 as a possible reason:

Wingenroth had said at a cancelled council meeting turned town hall last year that he wrote the agenda item for the subsidy. The city attorney, however, is ultimately responsible for assuring that meeting agendas don’t violate the Brown Act.

VOC also pointedf to Talley’s opinion that the city’s current at-large council system is in violation of the California Voting Rights Act, as another possible reason — although I don’t quite understand how Talley could make that finding absent the statistical analysis necessary to determine if there has been “polarized voting.”

The comments have quickly piled up on the VOC post. Here’s Cynthia Ward, true to form:

I won’t even pretend I know what happened in that room Tuesday night. All I can say is Christina Talley is an honest public servant, who calls it like she sees it even when it is not what Council wants to hear. I see Anaheim’s leadership majority just riding roughshod over anyone who gets in their way, or even gives the appearance of standing up to them. The sad thing is they will get rid of her, and bring in a “yes man” like Jack White, who will get us sued even more when they let those people have their beloved status quo.

I hope Christina Talley has kept every email, every meeting note, every record of the profanity laced rants on the 7th floor, and I never thought I would say this about my beloved home town, but I hope she sues the socks off of the City of Anaheim. I hate to say that, but it is the only way the arrogant behavior is going to be exposed.

If it turns out that Council is firing the only Latina executive at City Hall because she stood up to the majority in pointing out that the current system they defend might be disenfranchising Latinos, methinks there is a campaign mailer in there somewhere. What a bunch of tools.

Ah, the essence of clarity and rational thinking, as ever. And playing the race card to boot!

Another commented pointed out the obvious to her:

Cynthia, first you admit you have no idea what happened here regarding Talley, and then you go off on a rant, lobbing accusations against the council majority you revile so, and then urge Talley to file lawsuit over a termination that is unconfirmed, and about which you admit knowing nothing!

As of 7:20 a.m. this morning, the prolific Beelzebub – amazingly — still had not weighed in.

Stay tuned. We’ll doubtless know the disposition of Ms. Talley soon enough.