Reso 2026-021 Discipline - Councilmember Aguilar

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12 the next Vice Mayor due to retaliation for her vote to censure him, notwithstanding their prior agreement that Bowen would step aside to allow him to serve in that capacity last year. 2. Aguilar’s Reasons for Not Supporting Bowen’s Nomination — Her Alleged Poor Attendance, Tardiness, and Her Lack of Full Commitment — Is Not Factual and Suggests That He Was Motivated by Retaliation Aguilar acknowledged that the Rules Committee created a rule for the selection of Vice Mayor, which went into effect last year to provide all Council Members with a chance to serve in that role on a rotational basis. Aguilar initially claimed he did not discuss his 2025 nomination for Vice Mayor with anyone beforehand, but he later admitted that he discussed with Azevedo a plan for his nomination of Azevedo and that Azevedo in turn would nominate him, despite the fact that both Azevedo and Aguilar had both previously served as Vice Mayor. Aguilar claims that he did not support Bowen for Vice Mayor because she is frequently absent or tardy for City Council and committee meetings, but he did know how many meetings she has missed — he could only speculate that she might have missed more than five meetings. By comparison, he claims that Viveros-Walton has missed about 4 meetings; Simon has missed only 1 or 2 meetings. He believes that there is an attendance policy for City Council Members, but he is not aware if there are any repercussions for poor attendance or tardiness. However, the City’s records of Council Members’ attendance and late arrivals undercut Aguilar’s claims that Bowen’s attendance and tardiness was worse than that of others. Therefore, this was not a legitimate basis for not supporting her nomination to Vice Mayor. Based on the staff’s tracking of City Council Member’s attendance, Simon missed 18 meetings, which means that he missed the most meetings in the past three years; followed by Azevedo at 9 missed meetings; and Aguilar is tied with Bowen at missing 7 meetings total. Further, Viveros-Walton had the highest number of late arrivals at meetings — 3 total; Aguilar, Gonzalez and Simon were each tardy 2 times; and Azevedo and Bowen were only late once across all categories of meetings. Therefore, Aguilar’s claims about Bowen’s frequent absences and tardiness are refuted by the City’s records of Council Members attendance at both City Council Meetings and Committee Meetings, which reveal that Aguilar offered this as a pretext for not supporting her nomination out of retaliation for her censure vote. Aguilar also claims that Bowen allegedly told him that she did not want to run for re- election due to the stress, which she was having trouble handling. Aguilar claims that he wanted to select a Vice Mayor who was fully committed to being on the City Council. This explanation seems incredulous if Bowen was committed enough to express her desire to be the Vice Mayor two years in a row. Ultimately, Aguilar proffered reasons for his decision not to support Bowen for Vice Mayor, which were not credible, following her vote to support censure. Therefore, it is likely that both Simon and Aguilar were motivated by retaliation against Bowen for her comments during the censure process and her participation in the vote that resulted in their censure. D. Aguilar Undermined the City’s Sponsorship and Funding of Bowen’s Participation in Programs, But Did Not Object to Reimbursement of Simon’s Excessive Travel Expenses, Reflecting Gender Bias 1. Aguilar Objected to Bowen’s Former Non-Profit Organization Receiving City Funds Earmarked for An Event at The San Leandro Public Library While She Was a Library Commissioner Before Bowen joined the City Council, during an anti-Asian hate event organized by Azevedo, Bowen provided feedback that the event should have included Asian community leaders. When Bowen did not call out Aguilar who was present at that event, he then reported Bowen for misusing City funds as an Arts, Culture, and Library Commissioner and head of a Exhibit A Resolution No. 2026-021 Page 12