Four Avenal council members refuse to leave after recall election

Lone council member holds rival meeting, appoints himself mayor

The controversy in Avenal, a Central Valley town of roughly 13,000 residents about 60 miles southwest of Fresno, began over a dispute about fire services. Mayor Alvaro Preciado told the Wall Street Journal that Kings County proposed raising the city’s annual fire-protection bill from $450,000 to $1.1 million. County officials said they had discussed for years the need for Avenal to shoulder more costs, according to the Journal.

Preciado and the city council, with the help of City Manager Antony Lopez, set out to launch a separate city fire department. Many residents were furious, saying the plan was developed without public input. Ginger Wallis, a resident who lives at the base of a hill covered in flammable grass, told the Journal: “Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.”

The cost of the new fire department — $1 million in new equipment and other capital needs — stunned locals, who packed meetings in protest. Recall organizers gathered enough signatures to force a special election, which Kings County placed on the April 28 ballot over the city’s objections that the county lacked authority to do so. The recall passed in a landslide, the Journal reported, and withstood a legal challenge by the city that went to a state appeals court.

At a June 11 council meeting, three of the four ousted members voted to keep themselves in office anyway. Angry residents started yelling, the Journal reported. “You’re worse than Trump!” one man shouted before he and others stormed out.

Recall organizers then secured the California attorney general’s approval to file a lawsuit for the officials’ removal. The case is pending in state superior court, according to the Journal.

The following week, Councilman Ricardo Verdugo — the only council member not subject to the recall — called a rival meeting at an elementary school cafeteria. From a folding chair, with constituents seated on low kid-size benches, Verdugo made a motion to appoint himself as mayor. “I make a motion to appoint myself,” he said, according to the Journal. “And I second that motion.” His vote was unanimous.

The next day, the Kings County Board of Supervisors voted to put all four recalled seats on the November ballot, allowing residents to elect new leadership. But a local man at the county meeting pleaded for immediate action, telling the board the sheriff should “go out there and get those four city councilmen out.” Without that, he said, “this chaos, this saga is going to continue.”

Preciado, still calling himself mayor and wearing a Panama hat in his City Hall office, told the Journal he would step down if the courts make him. “It’s sad,” he said. “I’ve missed birthdays, anniversaries for this job.” He ticked off his accomplishments, including helping to bring in a Taco Bell. “We almost brought in McDonald’s,” he said.

Lopez, the city manager, said the four targeted officials are still fulfilling their duties despite verbal attacks. “A lot of memes and pictures and what not,” he told the Journal.

Kings County officials, who support the recall results, said they do not know of another time in California when voters have booted four of five council members in this manner, the Journal reported.