Placentia’s police officer and firefighter unions unanimously voted no confidence in City Administrator Damien Arrula this week as city council members review an investigation into whether he misspent taxpayer dollars on things like car washes and lunches.
No members of the public have seen the results of the investigation, but city council members approved new rules tightening their policies on city-issued credit card spending and travel allowances while debating whether or not to fire Arrula in closed session.
Arrula has not been fired, but hasn’t appeared at any city council meetings since the council reviewed the report and did not respond to requests for comment from Voice of OC.
[Read: Placentia City Administrator Under Investigation For Suspect Purchases]
Most of those discussions came after Placentia resident Julie Suchard started raising questions about Arrula’s expenses earlier this year, coming to city council meetings and asking why he was getting free car washes and using his city credit card to buy lunch regularly.
“Our community has an interest in seeing the investigator’s report. After all, our tax dollars paid for it,” Suchard said at the council’s October 15 meeting. “Placentia taxpayers should not be expected to fund Mr. Arrula’s Nordstrom lifestyle on our Walmart budget.”
Thomas McKenzie, president of the Placentia Police and Fire Management Association, spoke publicly on Tuesday night at the city council meeting on behalf of both his union and the city’s other police and fire unions, backing up many of the complaints Suchard had shared about Arrula.
McKenzie said an employee of the police department was the one taking Arrula’s car to get washed every Monday.
“This city employee was told to have city administrator Arrula’s vehicle washed every Monday,” McKenzie said during the council’s Tuesday night meeting. “I know this to be true, because I personally read the email…requesting a staff member from the police department to handle this.”
“We will not allow one member of this administration to ruin the hard work,” McKenzie continued. “I would ask the investigation that was completed be forwarded to the district attorney’s office.”
Scott Ferguson, president of the Placentia Firefighters Association, said Arrula has run city hall through “fear and intimidation,” and said Arrula failed to properly oversee the city’s fire department, which was established in 2020 after they left the OC Fire Authority.
[Read: Placentia Fire Department to Take Reins From OC Fire Authority After Year-Long Battle]
Arrula helped Placentia become the first city in the county to leave the countywide agency after strong pushback from the county’s firefighter unions and the agency itself.
“The city administrator has failed to deliver on these promises,” Ferguson said, claiming that Placentia’s fire department was understaffed and that they were not doing enough to coordinate with other cities’ fire departments.
Other city leaders also brought up questions about Arrula, with elected city treasurer Kevin Larson calling for a second audit reviewing the whole city’s credit card policies and spending.
“It is very important an audit of this matter be conducted by an independent subject matter expert,” Larson said, noting he had “nothing but the greatest admiration for Arrula.”
He also called for the results of any audit to be reviewed behind closed doors behind council members before they brought their recommendations out to the public.
Placentia Mayor Jeremy Yamaguchi told the unions and Larson that he “heard them loud and clear,” and that they would consider moving forward with additional audits.
“There are a number of things we can and can’t talk about publicly based on timelines but just know that I understand that’s not something that just happens on a whim,” Yamaguchi said. “That is a bold statement for you guys to make, so the brevity of that comment has been received by me loud and clear.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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