Two Cupertino city councilmembers have been stripped of their committee assignments, and there is now a referral to the district attorney's office to investigate possible criminal activity by the city's former mayor.
An independent investigation mirrored a report by a civil grand jury, accusing councilwomen Kitty Moore and Liang Chao of poor treatment of city staff and circumventing councilmember protocols, including going around the city manager on certain issues.
At last Tuesday's special meeting by the city council, Moore and Chao both spoke before recusing themselves.
"The agenda tonight contemplates referral to the district attorney, which means that I must recuse myself because there is a foreseeable financial impact to myself and my family," Moore said. "Thank you all and have a good evening."
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"The political power brokers have tried to influence and muzzle the city council and staff through anonymous, undisclosed interviews," Chao said.
A short time later, their council colleagues stripped them of their committee assignments. Now, there is a move to perhaps censure the duo.
The report says the actions have led to high turnover among senior city staff members.
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"If you take an already overworked staff and then you basically tell them, 'Hey, want you to go find 7,000 pages of stuff to go through and find these specific things that I’m looking for,' that's untenable," said Neil Park-McClintick with Cupertino for All.
In an email to NBC Bay Area, Moore said the report ignored her comments about why she had multiple concerns over the years about certain decisions and said she needs to ask a lot of tough questions to be able to make tough decisions.
Meanwhile, former Mayor Darcy Paul might be in legal trouble himself. The council claims Paul might have been involved in criminal activity while in office by also allegedly circumventing the city manager.
Paul did not immediately return NBC Bay Area's message to his law office seeking comment.
Chao and Mayor Hung Wey also did not immediately return NBC Bay Area's messages.
