Milpitas City Council Rebukes Mayor Tran
Cites need for greater professionalism from the Mayor, following court ruling allowing City’s disclosure of documents withheld by prior restraining order.
Milpitas, Calif. — The Milpitas City Council has issued a public statement regarding its concerns about the actions and words of Mayor Rich Tran related to the City’s former city manager accusations. The statement follows the recent decision of Santa Clara County Judge Sunil Kulkarni that now allows the City to release public documents that had been legally withheld over the past year as a result of a temporary restraining order.
The four Councilmembers include Vice Mayor Marsha Grilli, Garry Barbadillo, Bob Nuñez, and Anthony Phan. Their joint statement regarding Mayor Tran, who serves as the fifth councilmember, follows:
With the completion of two separate independent investigations regarding various allegations, and with the decision of Judge Sunil Kulkarni allowing us to release the relevant public records associated with this matter, the City Council finally has the opportunity and obligation to express our deep concerns about the professional behavior of Mayor Rich Tran as an elected official and as Mayor of our city.
All of us on the City Council serve in a position of public trust, and that trust must be continually earned through the actions and words of all of us, all the time. Furthermore, when a member of our City Council, including the Mayor, demonstrates a lack of respect for our code of ethics and for the public we have been elected to serve, then it reflects poorly on the City and corrodes that trust we have worked so hard to build and maintain.
Therefore, we have been deeply disappointed by Mayor Tran’s behavior and statements in the past year that have failed to meet the level of professionalism and the level of respect that our community expects and deserves from our leaders.
