The mayor, who has lobbed allegations of criminality and corruption was ousted by a council that met in secret They then declared a state of emergency, allowing them to meet without any public notification and suspend public comment until after the state of emergency is declared over.
Until then, residents will be allowed to review transcripts and recordings of the secretive meetings.
The Mayor, who is still officially in office but has been rendered irrelevant after he was stripped of all power, says the city council has run wild and is trying to hide the fact that several council members have lined their own pockets with millions of dollars. He said their recent actions were akin to “martial law.”
The matter came to a head after a video was posted online of a woman being hauled out of a council meeting in handcuffs for remarks she gave during the public comment session. The mayor could be heard telling the officers to stop the arrest, but she was hauled out of the meeting nonetheless.
From the Washington Post:
The far western Arizona town of Quartzsite was in disarray Monday after the town council ousted the mayor from power and declared a state of emergency, all over an online video that shows a woman being arrested.
Mayor Ed Foster told The Associated Press on Monday that the town council held a last-minute meeting that was closed to the public Sunday night, declaring a state of emergency in the 3,600-person town just east of the California city of Blythe.
Read the full article here.