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Palo Alto Online

Series of events that led to memo

It began on Oct. 7 at a regular council meeting when Councilwoman Nancy Lytle accused City Attorney Ariel Calonne of trying to restrict public testimony.

Sometime in the next few weeks, Calonne wrote a memo about the exchange.

Mayor Vic Ojakian decided to hold a closed discussion about the memo on Oct. 29 to evaluate the performance of the city attorney. Prior to the meeting, three council members -- Lytle, Yoriko Kishimoto and Hillary Freeman -- ask Calonne to withdraw the memo. Two other council members, Bern Beecham and Ojakian, discussed the matter. (Five members of the council cannot legally discuss an item coming before the full council.)

At the closed-session meeting on Oct. 29, three council members -- Jack Morton, Dena Mossar and Jim Burch -- walked out after learning about other council members' attempts to squelch Calonne's memo.

"My exit, and I suspect that of my two other colleagues, was meant to very clearly express an unwillingness to be associated with such an inappropriate action," Morton wrote in his letter, written and delivered to members of the council's Policy and Services Committee on Nov. 6.

Prior to the committee meeting beginning, Ojakian reportedly contacted Policy and Services chair Judy Kleinberg to ask her to prevent distribution of the letter.

While the meeting was going on, Ojakian called Morton asking him to withdraw the letter. Kleinberg reportedly replied that he should discuss the matter with Morton.

During the committee's meeting, Calonne received a cell phone call, and goes into the hall where he gestured to Kleinberg that the call was for her. She declined to accept the call because the meeting had already begun. The call was from Morton, checking to see if the letter had been distributed.

-- Weekly Staff report