CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A majority of Clearlake City Council members on Thursday night voted to remove Jeri Spittler from the mayor's seat, citing issues that included disrespect for fellow council members, difficult working conditions and the failure to follow protocol.
The nearly four-hour-long meeting played out before a packed audience, many people holding signs in support of Spittler, elected mayor by the council last December.
However, despite a large amount of public comment supporting Spittler, her fellow council members indicated they were not pleased with Spittler's leadership and voted to remove her four months before her term as mayor was set to end.
The vote was 3-2, with Vice Mayor Denise Loustalot, and council members Joey Luiz and Gina Fortino Dickson voting to unseat Spittler. Spittler and Council member Joyce Overton voted no.
While Overton said she hadn't wanted to consider removing Spittler, she did offer some of the evening's most persistent criticism of Spittler and her approach to leading the council.
Overton said Spittler always had an excuse to explain her behavior and that she had failed to apologize or to consider when she had done anything wrong. Spittler countered that she had apologized whenever she made mistakes.
While Thursday night's meeting was at times heated – at the end Spittler's supporters were jeering and shouting at the council – at the beginning of the meeting council members said it was the most cordial meeting that they had been to him sometime.
After the vote to remove her, Spittler – who said she was she felt she was being picked apart by her council colleagues – gathered her things and left the council chambers, followed by a group of her supporters. She refused Lake County News' request for a comment after the meeting.
The council voted to have Overton succeed Spittler as mayor and also agreed to pursue mediation in order to try to work out their issues.
Spittler defended herself during the meeting, saying she didn't mistreat people, that her efforts were “love offerings” and that she was trying in her own way to make the city better.
City Manager Joan Philippe told Lake County News after the meeting that she was speaking to a League of California Cities circuit rider about the possibility of coming in to lead mediation with the council. She also has received offers from two Lake County residents offering mediation assistance.
The issues between Spittler and her fellow council members had come to a head at the Aug. 8 meeting, when they had discussed aspects of a proposed marijuana cultivation ordinance and placing a new 1-percent road tax on the November ballot. At the end of that meeting, Luiz asked for a discussion on changing the council's leadership to be brought forward at this week's meeting.
During the Thursday night discussion, Overton said she believed that Spittler is a goodhearted person who means well, but she took issue with some of Spittler's actions, including making changes to the staff lunchroom without permission, and getting into the city's secure records room, being rude to other council members and interrupting council members' comments at the meetings. Overton suggested there was a need for team building.
Dickson, one of the council's newer members, said she felt that the way Spittler had portrayed the issues to the community in the run up to the meeting – that the council was considering removing her from the mayor's job because its members had disagreed with her over matters like the road tax – was disrespectful, saying that the impetus had never been about disagreeing with her.
The day after the road tax vote, Spittler went on the radio and campaigned against the tax, Dickson said. “That's inappropriate.”
Dickson, who explained the stages of team building, told her colleagues, “We're faced right here with a moment, an opportunity, to become a team that can perform at a very high capacity.”
Spittler said she and her fellow council members communicate, and they don't always agree but she called them an “awesome” team.
Loustalot said she was not used to being treated unkind and unfair. “We can disagree in a respectful way and that's what doesn’t always happen up here or in closed sessions or in the staff room,” she said.
Loustalot also raised an issue about Spittler going to the Board of Supervisors months ago to bring up issues about the city's incorporation 33 years ago.
At that board meeting, Spittler had spoken as mayor of the city, but her council colleagues had not given her permission to speak on behalf the city.
Spittler said she raised the issue with the Board of Supervisors because it was one that had been raised with her by community members. She said she didn't realize she was being inappropriate by going to the board without the council's permission.
Luiz, who served as mayor himself, said he presided over a much more divided council with more issues, yet they didn't have the negativity and declining staff morale they've seen during Spittler's tenure.
Like Dickson, he took issue with the fact that Spittler has put it out to the community that she was being considered for removal because of disagreements with fellow council members. Luiz said a look at their voting records would reveal that he and Spittler agree on about 90 percent of the issues. “So how does that make sense?”
He added, “There is no conspiracy here. There is no hidden issue.”
Spittler, in response to the criticisms, told council members, “I've never been rude to anybody.”
She said she believes in standing her ground, and suggested that each of the council members had something different to offer.
Both Loustalot and Luiz had concerns about going into future closed sessions with Spittler because of her behavior behind closed doors. Loustalot asked Philippe at the meeting if she and Luiz had been the only ones who had had that concern. Philippe said no.
Dickson accused Spittler of deflecting her issues onto others. “That's happened more than once in your time as mayor.”
Spittler said she wasn't trying to deflect, she was trying to explain. “I'm doing the best I can as mayor,” she said, adding that she has apologized for every mistake and felt she was being persecuted for a difference of opinion.
“We all have to look at ourselves,” and look for ways to improve, Dickson said. She said that every time a problem is brought up Spittler had a reasoning that made it OK for her to act a certain way.
“I feel like I'm being dissected for everything I do,” said Spittler.
Overton noted that things had gotten out of hand. “Jeri, the problem with you is you will never look in the mirror and say you've done anything wrong.”
Community members defend Spittler
After more than an hour of council discussion, public comment began. Spittler asked for everyone to be orderly and not to call names. For a time the rules were followed, and at one point a woman was told to leave for shouting out from the audience.
But by late in meeting audience members had begun to talk loudly over council members and were shouting at them from the audience. When council members asked Spittler to take action, she only hushed the audience and didn't have anyone else leave.
Approximately 27 people spoke to the council about the matter. Many were in support of retaining Spittler as mayor, while others accused the entire council of being dysfunctional. There were accusations of Brown Act violations on the recent radio show, appeals to get the council to work together and offers of mediation.
Michael Dunlap told council members that the public didn't care about their feelings and he also wasn't interested in hearing how hard it was to be on the council, noting that they can resign they didn't like it. “Get on with it,” he said.
Two retired council members, Roy Simons and Chuck Leonard, addressed the council. Simons, who called the whole discussion “embarrassing,” said Spittler had the right to her opinion.
Leonard told the council that the decision they had before them ultimately was up to them to make.
“The leadership has been terrible,” said Leonard, who told Spittler directly, “Jeri, you're in over your head.”
Pete Gascoigne said he wanted to see council members debate passionately but respectfully. He said Spittler had a right to go the Board of Supervisors, just not to do so in her capacity as mayor. When decisions are made by the council, he said members shouldn't go against that decision by the majority.
Gascoigne, noting he's a Raiders fan, added, “Get along, don't go the Raiders way.”
Adelia Leonard, who was at the Aug. 8 meeting, agreed with council members that at that meeting will Spittler had not behaved appropriately. “She is extremely rude. she is extremely disrespectful.”
Leonard pointed out that many of the people supporting Spittler at Thursday night's meeting warrant at the Aug. 8 meeting and didn't see her behavior. She suggested if they had, they would've found it inappropriate.
Tim Williams said he used to come to quite a few meetings but that the atmosphere has started to become nastier about a year ago. He recalled having previously asked Overton, when she was mayor, about bringing in mediation for the Council.
“None of you are professionals,” he said suggesting professional outside assistance for a mediator could be helpful.
Bruno Sabatier said he had never seen the council chambers so packed. He wanted to see energy spent on issues rather than disagreements like that involving Spittler, and urged the council to work as a team.
Tracy Lahr, who noted that she knows all of the council members, told them, “This saddens me.”
She recalled having sat and talked to both Luiz and Spittler when they were running for office in 2010. “I just want to see you guys work together,” she said.
Lahr encouraged them to find a way to get along. “I believe in you guys,” she said.
Estella Creel – who Spittler received a restraining order against last year over an incident with the dog – said if the many people crowding the chamber came to meetings occasionally they would see what actually happens and the “chaos” Spittler causes at the council meetings.
Pete Loustalot, Denise Loustalot's husband, said that the job that was before the council members was not a popularity contest; it wasn't about going on Facebook or about getting people to come to the meeting.
If they were there for the right reasons, it was about improving Clearlake and making the hard decisions, he said.
Tina Conatser said she voted for all the council members, and didn't understand why they were taking the action against Spittler. She said she had a hard time understanding why Spittler was wrong.
Conatser wanted the council to stop what she called “childish behavior” and get back to work, adding that Spittler put tremendous effort into the community.
Luiz said the matter was about being consistent in doing the city's business. He said Philippe is leading and doing a great job, they are working on a new general plan and looking for solutions to problems.
“The problem is we're going to get held up for the next four months if we can't make this better,” he said.
When Luiz said Spittler doesn't have the skill to conduct meetings or to respect other members, a man in the audience yelled out that Luiz was an idiot. “That's the type of people she leads,” Luiz responded.
Dickson said she was extremely embarrassed by the matter, noting it wasn't an easy discussion and she wasn't happy to been involved.
Reading from a document on council conduct, which explained the mayor's responsibility to facilitate the orderly conducting of city business, Dickson said that those rules hadn't been followed during Spittler's tenure as mayor.
Dickson believed Spittler could do a good job. She recalled that she had supported Spittler in becoming mayor.
She said she thought Spittler could correct those issues with the council, but added, “I don't know that you will.”
“I'm always working on myself,” said Spittler.
Spittler said she would never have put any of the other council members in the position that they were putting her in during the meeting. She was not sure how she was supposed to react to four people critiquing her “to the bone.”
Spittler said she has tenacity and will stand her ground, adding that she was on the council because she believes she can help the city, which she suggested was the motivation of the other council members.
It would be Spittler who finally called for the motion. “How much more can you beat on me?” She said she was guilty of “reckless acts of kindness.”
The council members all sat silently for a moment before Loustalot, who took a deep breath, made the motion to remove Spittler as mayor, with Luiz seconding.
After the 3-2 vote, Spittler's husband, Tony, yelled from the audience, “You guys suck.”
As the audience began to yell at the council, Spittler told them to calm down and, referring to police officers standing at the back of the room, suggested they would love to choke someone, a comment that angered members of the police force.
The council then voted 4-0, with Spittler abstaining, to appoint Overton as mayor. In addition, Dickson suggested that they take a recommendation from Phillipe and find a mediator.
Spittler then got up and left the room with a number of audience members following her out. A short recess was called, with the remaining four council members coming back and Overton sitting in the mayor's seat.
Overton said she took the seat with regret.
With all of the council members agreeing to forgo giving their reports that night, the meeting was adjourned about 10 minutes before 10 p.m.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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