The National City City Council Tuesday night voted to seek the opinion of the state’s Attorney General’s Office on whether an allegation into Councilwoman Mona Rios’s mismanagement of the National City Rotary Club’s funds can be investigated.
If the attorney general opines that an investigation is warranted then the City Council will take a formal vote whether or not to move forward with an investigation.
Mayor Ron Morrison and councilmen Albert Mendivil and Jerry Cano were in favor of sending the item to the Attorney General’s Office while Councilwoman Alejandra Sotelo-Solis was the lone vote against. Rios voluntarily recused herself from the discussion to make it a fair process, she said.
Their votes took place after Acting City Attorney Nicole Pedone informed the City Council that the issue did not warrant an investigation because it fell outside the purview of the city.
“The Rotary Club is not a governmental entity and it is a private service club so it’s not staffed by public officials, there are no elections of people who are staffing that private service club, they are volunteers,” she said. “It’s very different than obviously a legislative body that is sitting up here today.”
Rios has come under fire by current Rotary Club members accusing her of mismanaging Rotary funds, failing to pay for rental space at the Martin Luther King Community Center and not filing annual IRS forms during the eighth month span between 2014-2015 when Rios was the club’s president.
Sotelo-Solis agreed with the city attorney and said the city shouldn’t be looking into this matter.
She also took issue with how and where the money would come from for an investigation.
Pedone said if Rotary members felt there was an issue with the mismanagement of funds then the organization should investigate it or pursue civil action. Pedone said arguably there could be a contractual obligation between the Rotary and the city for payment of a room but the balance has already been paid.
Sotelo-Solis said if the Rotary Club feels that their allegations are true then they should take action.
“If the Rotary Club so feels that they were wronged, go and seek a civil remedy,” she said.
Pedone said it could take months before the city hears back from the attorney general.
