Sweetwater mayor fires almost everyone for ‘clean house’

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But sources in the city told me that among those fired are Human Resources Director Joanna Gomez, the directors of zoning, finance and transit and the mayor’s chief of staff, Guillermo Cuadra, who was hired after Marono left and reportedly makes somewhere around $150,000, making one of the highest paid COS Ladra has ever heard of.

One source said there could be an additional four people added to that list.

Now, normally, public sector employees cannot be fired without cause and usually get the benefit of what is called a pre-determination hearing, to consider alternatives like disciplinary action, transfers and other options. From what Ladra has heard, none of the employees fired Monday were given such hearings.

Also, at least some of them were blocked from going into their offices or retrieving personal items from their desks. One source told Ladra that police escorted some of the employees out of City Hall.

But this is not the first time that Diaz fires people because they rubbed him the wrong way.

He fired several high-ranking police officers and a code enforcement officer after the city got a complaint, allegedly, about work being done without a permit at the mayor’s home.

And maybe he’s making room for more of his pals. Diaz also previously fired the maintenance director and hired Alan Albolila, the husband of the Esther Albolila, former chief of staff of former Commission Chair Joe Martinez.

According to one of Ladra’s sources, another employee was saved from the chopping block but is being transferred basically to Siberia: Jenny Marono, the incarcerated mayor’s wife, who used to head constituency services at City Hall, will now be reporting to fleet services in maintenance. In other words, she would be going from helping residents with their food stamps and stuff to making sure that vehicles have their oil changes.

Nah, this ain’t political. Diaz is just “cleaning house.”

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  Jose Diaz, Manny Marono, Sweetwater politics