Melanie M. Poturica is managing partner at the law firm of
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore in Los Angeles, and can be reached
at mpoturica@lcwlegal.com. David
A. Urban is an attorney with the firm, and can be reached
at durban@lcwlegal.com.
In the public eye, city council members are at the top of the
city’s government structure, presiding over large and small
bureaucracies that may include police officers, firefighters and
many other types of employees charged with serving the public
interest. Accordingly, when residents are aggrieved by or
interested in the conduct of a particular employee, they may view
their council member as that employee’s ultimate “boss” or de
facto CEO of the city, who can cause the employee to be
disciplined or even terminated, and who could certainly take
such lesser actions as communicating with the
employee’s direct supervisor or reviewing the employee’s
personnel file for information relevant to the issue.
