California City is grappling with political upheaval as it prepares to address recent chaos at its council meeting.
Councilman Michael Hurles resigned on Friday amid controversy, leaving the city to determine how to fill his vacant seat.
Mayor Marquette Hawkins revealed that Hurles had missed several council meetings for various reasons. According to a resolution to censure Hurles, he referred to Councilmember Ron Smith as a “weasel” and allegedly lunged at him and leaned into the mayor during a closed session. The resolution cited multiple negative incidents involving Hurles.
“The council collectively had identified, along with staff, a number of issues that had arisen. And some very egregious and very concerning,” Hawkins said.
The city council is now considering either Councilmembers Jim Creighton or Della Clark to become the new mayor pro tem. The process for filling the vacant council seat remains undecided.
“We have a lot of armchair attorneys out there, telling us how it’s supposed to be. I know that a lot of folks love using Chat GPT law, but that’s not always accurate,” Hawkins said. “Our legal team is exploring all options right now to look at how that seat should be filled, whether it’s through, again, a special election, whether it’s an appointment or nothing at all.”
Hurles is the third councilmember to resign in the past three months.
Hawkins acknowledged the challenges of changing previous government practices, noting, “Some people have the stamina to handle that. And some people don’t or some people have extenuating circumstances that do not allow them to be able to have that sort of thicker skin than a pachyderm to be able to weather the storm and move forward.”
Hurles spoke with Eyewitness News Tuesday evening.
“If I went (to the council meeting) all I was going to get because they already made up their minds, it was going to be a 4-0 vote (to censure me),” he said. “So why bother? Why go and put myself through it for no reason?”
Hurles did not want to address the allegations made toward him during closed session, saying, “In my opinion they shouldn’t either because closed session is supposed to be closed session and we’ll see how that plays out later.”
He said he did not negotiate with Justin Vincent as the resolution alleged.
Hurles said he was involved in a car accident in April. He said he experienced head trauma and eventually suffered from migraine headaches and vertigo. That ‘s why he missed council meetings, he said.
“As far as I know, you’re allowed to be sick,” he said.
Hurles said he and his wife are planning to move away from California City.
“You need to probably start thinking seriously about leaving the city, putting all this behind you and go on to somewhere else because I don’t see this is going to get any better,” he said. “As far as the city, I’m done with the city.”