Reso 2026-021 Discipline - Councilmember Aguilar

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11 At the same time, Mayor Gonzalez had to appoint City Council Members to committees and intergovernmental agencies, so he asked every member for their preferences. He noted that unlike other organizations, the Alameda County Stop Waste Board actually pays Board Members for their attendance at their meetings, so it may be one reason why such an appointment is coveted by Council Members. Gonzalez decided to appoint Bowen to that board based in part on the fact that she previously worked with Stop Waste in her leadership role at her former non-profit organization, Community Impact Labs. This meant that Simon, who had been serving on the Board for years, would no longer serve on that board, which upset him. According to Viveros-Walton, Simon accused Mayor Gonzalez of taking the only African American off the Stop Waste Board, implying that racial bias was behind this decision, but Viveros-Walton supported Bowen’s appointment to that Board so that Bowen would have the opportunity to serve in a leadership role for that organization — and not because of any racial bias against Simon. Simon acknowledged that he had a conversation with Bowen when they discussed his selection as the Vice Mayor in 2024 as the most senior member of the City Council who had not yet had an opportunity to serve in that capacity. He initially stated that he recalled discussing a rotational process for Vice Mayor based on seniority but then claimed that he did not recall if Bowen allowed him to be Vice Mayor in exchange for his agreement to support her nomination in 2025. Simon reasoned that if the selection should be based solely on seniority, then Aguilar, who has the longest tenure, should have been selected instead of Bowen, despite the fact that Aguilar had already previously served as Vice Mayor. Simon contends that the rule contained in the Council Member’s Handbook: “The Vice Mayor will be designated by seniority, seniority is to be defined by date sworn into office,” does not require the selection of the most senior member who had not yet served as Vice Mayor. But his interpretation of the rule undercuts the intent behind enacting it since the impetus for the creation and adoption of the rule was to provide every Council Member an opportunity to serve on a rotational basis as Vice Mayor based on seniority. It was not designed to allow a City Council Member with the longest tenure to be selected repeatedly, effectively foreclosing the opportunity for other Council Members to serve in such capacity. Furthermore, Simon had sought the Vice Mayor position in 2024 because he was the City Council Member with the most seniority who had not yet served as Vice Mayor. This is precisely why Bowen had stepped aside to afford him this opportunity to be Vice Mayor last year, as corroborated by Gonzalez and Ballew. Simon also contends that Bowen lacks leadership qualities to be Vice Mayor because she is not fair or impartial. He claims that during the censure process, Bowen made untrue statements when she allegedly stated that Simon had criticized Cameron about issues that were outside the scope of her work. Simon heard from someone else that Cameron had an unprofessional interaction with a Spanish Television station reporter, which is part of the reason he did not support her appointment to City Manager. But Simon concedes that he did not know that Cameron was following City protocols about media interviews or that Robustelli, her direct supervisor at the time, had instructed Cameron not to speak to the press on behalf of the City. Simon did not consider that was outside the scope of Cameron’s duties for which Bowen might have been alluding. Instead, he accuses Bowen of lying, which he believes led to his censure by the City Council. However, his rationale reveals his motive to seek retribution over Bowen’s alleged statements, which he believes resulted in his censure by the City Council. Both Boldt and Azevedo recall that Simon had shared his plans to vote against Bowen’s nomination for Vice Mayor, regardless of what the rule stated. Azevedo recalls that Simon said that he would not vote for Bowen to be Vice Mayor because Simon said that she is a liar, and Boldt recalls telling Simon that “he was a dummy” for trying to obstruct Bowen from being selected as Vice Mayor. Boldt also told Simon that he was going to create more havoc by obstructing Bowen’s path to Vice Mayor, but Simon said that he was entitled to his vote, even though there was a clear rule and rotational process in place for the selection of the next Vice Mayor. Such evidence suggests that Simon deliberately voted to block Bowen from becoming Exhibit A Resolution No. 2026-021 Page 11