Amy Phan West sported a black “Make America Great Again” hat that sparkled as she questioned her colleagues on the Westminster City Council during a special meeting on Monday.
“I’m not here to throw anyone under the bus,” Phan West said, “but we recently just found out [this] is a council meeting.”
With mini-U.S. and Trump flags perched from her seat, Phan West claimed she needed to leave an hour into the meeting and wanted certain city business to be conducted at a later date.
In response to a question posed by Councilman Carlos Manzo, who often rhetorically tangles with Phan West, Westminster’s city clerk noted that all council members received the agenda for the special meeting on the Friday morning prior to it.
A council majority then voted down Phan West’s request to continue discussions on a grocery assistance program for elderly residents and potential zoning changes to its regularly scheduled Dec. 11 meeting. Phan West departed after council members agreed to move up a vote on certifying local election results to accommodate her.
As far as Westminster goes, Monday’s special meeting may seem tame by comparison but it underscores how distrust has seeped into and slowed down even the more granular aspects of city governance.
After enduring three meetings in the past six months that have stretched past 10 hours, a lawsuit filed by Westminster against Phan West and Councilman NamQuan Nguyen claims that the distrust has fueled disruption that amounts to a misdemeanor violation of city and state law.
Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen, former Councilwoman Kimberly Ho and Manzo voted in October to authorize the hiring of an outside law firm to file the suit. The council majority turned to Judge Gassia Apkarian’s courtroom after claiming that all other efforts to curtail council chaos had failed.
Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen during a September council meeting
(James Carbone)
In August, the trio voted to censure Phan West after several meetings were marked by five-minute recesses, muted microphones and council members talking over each other even when not recognized by the mayor as having the floor.
That same month, new rules on how meetings are conducted were also enacted, including time limits on council member comments. Placing items on the agenda now requires the support of a third council member.
But even with those reforms, the suit claims that Mayor Nguyen has not been able to rein in Phan West and NamQuan Nguyen’s “unruly behavior,” which has allegedly impeded the council’s ability to conduct city business.
The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court on Nov. 27.
Phan West did not respond to a TimesOC request for comment, but blamed the so-called “Gang of Three” council majority for “misuse of taxpayer money for political stunts” in bringing the lawsuit against her.
In a Tuesday news release, she also claimed litigation distracted from issues the city faces like a high sales tax, homelessness and crime.
“Westminster deserves leadership that uses taxpayer money wisely and focuses on real solutions — not efforts to silence dissenting voices,” Phan West said.
The city is seeking a court order that would require Phan West and Councilman Nguyen to abide by decorum rules at council meetings “lest they degenerate into shouting matches; generating heat, but not light.”
During the Oct. 23 council meeting, before last month’s court filing, Westminster City Atty. Christian Bettenhausen reported out of closed session that the council majority wanted a judge to impose a court order backed by fines for any violations.
Mayor Nguyen, Manzo and Ho also want any such fines imposed to be paid out of the pockets of the offending council members and not the city.
After the city attorney’s report, Phan West called the move a political attack. Mayor Nguyen thanked his colleagues for taking action.
“We don’t have to do this if we don’t have the chaos in our city council meetings,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have to proceed this way.”