San Bernardino council initiates censure of Kimberly Calvin for ‘policy, law, fiduciary’ violations (2024)

With no discussion, the San Bernardino City Council voted Wednesday, April 17, to begin the process to censure one of its own in the aftermath of a report that found her responsible for leaks of confidential information.

The council voted 4-3 to initiate censure proceedings against Councilmember Kimberly Calvin for allegedly violating her “policy, law and fiduciary duty” as an elected official, according to a staff report prepared for the meeting.

Censures are public reprimands. They don’t come with a fine or suspension attached.

The vote comes a day after the city released an investigation into recent council leaks that found a“preponderance of credible evidence overwhelmingly points to Calvin as the originator of the closed-session leaks,” mostly concerning San Bernardino’s search for a new city manager in late 2023.

Before the council’s vote, Calvin addressed her colleagues to deny any wrongdoing. According to her, the timelines in the investigation report prepared by Laguna Niguel-based JL Group LLC are not clear.

Calvin said she stands alone on the dais on several issues, and touted her work for the 6th Ward community and throughout the city. When elected in 2020, she pledged transparency and accountability, principles she said she strives to uphold in her everyday life.

“Call me wrong, call me angry, call me censured … but what you can’t deny is that I have been consistent,” Calvin said.

Councilmember Theodore Sanchez said further discussion was unnecessary and called for a vote on whether to proceed with the censure process before Councilmember Ben Reynoso attempted unsuccessfully to squash the motion.

Emotions in the crowd were running high during the vote on Sanchez’s motion, with one member of the audience shouting “Cowards!” before storming out of the room.

The motion passed 4-3 with Reynoso voting “hell no” and joining Calvin and Councilmember Damon Alexander in opposition. Sanchez and Councilmembers Sandra Ibarra, Juan Figueroa and Fred Shorett voted in favor.

Calvin remained calm on the dais during the vote, quietly slipping out toward the end of the meeting.

City staff will offer recommendations on next steps, which could include hiring outside legal counsel and forming an ad hoc committee, at a future council meeting. A hearing on the censure resolution would follow.

According to the report released Tuesday, Calvin’s alleged actions opened the city up to millions of dollars in legal damages stemming from a claim that San Bernardino officials cost Steve Carrigan, a one-time a candidate for city manager, his job in Salinas.

In his claim with the city, a precursor to a lawsuit, Carrigan alleges San Bernardino council members leaked the information about his interview to Salinas in an attempt to scuttle his candidacy. Although he withdrew from the recruitment process in San Bernardino, his former employer fired him.

Carrigan seeks $2.2 million in damages.

At a meeting last week, the San Bernardino council voted to refer the alleged leak to the county District Attorney’s Office and the civil grand jury.

The council’s action Wednesday is not the first it’s taken against Calvin, who will not be returning to the dais for a second term after failing to win re-election in the March primary.

In December, thecity released the results of a personnel investigation into Calvin’s behavior as a council member. According to the investigation, sparked by a single unnamed city employee, Calvin allegedly violated city rules and created an “uncomfortable” work environment at San Bernardino City Hall.

Speakers at the meeting Wednesday sharply criticized the council ahead of the censure vote.

Resident Marie Robinson said the city has “bigger fish to fry” and that censuring the only council member to ask questions of city leaders was ignoring San Bernardino’s larger issues.

“What doesn’t make sense to me is censuring the only council member who has said make it make sense,” Robinson said.

Rikke Van Johnson, a former 6th Ward councilmember, said the censure requires only “circ*mstantial evidence” and that the city is meant to operate in an open and transparent manner.

“We are being force fed a conspiracy,” Van Johnson said. “It makes me wonder what other schemes you are cooking up because you don’t want to hear what others have to say.”

Staff writer Beau Yarbrough contributed to this story.

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