.png)
Khubesrian was right. She’s not solely responsible for the City’s horrendous actions against Alison Smith.
City Manager DeWolfe and City Attorney Highsmith are equally to blame.
DeWolfe lead an organization that:
- Violated city and state law not training staff on state mandated emergency response plans for sewer maintenance – directly leading to the damage,
- Violated city and state regulations by not cleaning up the damage caused by a sewer malfunction in the city’s main line sewer system,
- Violated the 2011 Consent Judgement with the Attorney General,
- Submitted a false report to the State Waterboard, intentionally misrepresenting the size and duration of the spill,
- Generated demonstrably false internal memos to cover their mistakes regarding the spill, and
- Falsified an affidavit to obtain an illegal search against a resident.
Highsmith, violated her fiduciary duty to the City: It’s a conflict for a contract attorney to provide advice to Council on work conducted by another partner of the same firm.
And here’s why: The cost to clean up the spill caused from a backup in the City’s own mainline system would have been roughly $40,000.
Why would the City Attorney recommend seeing this to court? Perhaps because, to date, Highsmith has billed the city over $130,000 for litigation expenses.
Highsmith has been lining the pockets of her own firm while DeWolfe weaponizes City resources to abuse a resident harmed by the City’s own failing infrastructure and neglect.
It’s time for the Council to step up, take responsibility, and put an end to this madness.
– Stephen Rossi, South Pasadena Resident
Editorial Disclaimer
The South Pasadenan News welcomes letters to the editor on a wide variety of subjects from all points of view. Letters submitted to the publication may or may not be published at the editor’s discretion. All letters must be signed. Letters published do not necessarily reflect the views of The South Pasadenan News, its Publisher, its staff or its advertisers. The words of the author are their own.
External Website Hyperlink Disclaimer
The SouthPasadenan.com News provides thousands of online stories and advertisements. Editors and or submitted content will sometimes provide hyperlinks to external websites for the convenience and clarity for our readers. The South Pasadenan News does not control any of the content of these external websites, and does not assume and is not responsible for any liability whatsoever for the linking to any of these linked external websites. Hyperlinks to external sites by The South Pasadenan News should not be considered an endorsement of submitted content, the external sites and/or their operators, nor is it an endorsement or guarantee of any of the information provided on these sites. Questions related to information found on linked external sites is for informational purposes, and it’s up to the reader to do their own research on any given topic.
The South Pasadena News does its best to be useful and accurate with the information we have. If there is an inaccuracy or error, email us: Media@SouthPasadenan.com. If you have a different opinion than what was published, submit a letter to the editor.
