Former Paso Robles City Council candidate Linda George filed a $500,000 personal injury claim against the city, requesting that City Manager Ty Lewis be terminated.
George, who lost the 1st District City Council election, presented her 18-page “writ of mandate” to the council at its Dec. 3 meeting. Its goal is to compel the city to fire Lewis under seven workplace violations.
“Happy reading,” she said.
In the claim, George accuses Lewis of creating his own conspiracy group to interfere with the City Council election, specifically her campaign and that of 3rd District candidate Michael Rivera (who also lost), among a list of other alleged offenses.
“[Lewis] is required to perform his jobs to the best of his ability and moral turpitude [sic],” the claim reads. “He has not and remains incompetent of the job.”
George signed the writ, which doesn’t note an attorney. For now, George has only filed the document with the city. However, George told New Times if the city denies it, she intends to “take it to a judge.”
Her claim comes after City Manager Lewis submitted his own complaint against the city—a $2.2 million claim he filed in August accusing Councilmember Chris Bausch of creating a hostile work environment. The city denied Lewis’ claim.
According to his complaint, Lewis alleged that Bausch had attempted to intimidate and defame him over the previous year, and that both George and Rivera were involved. The city manager claimed that the hostility inflicted “severe emotional distress,” causing him to faint at a May City Council meeting and be placed on medical leave.
George told New Times that she was never in cahoots with Bausch and considers her new claim as a “checkmate” against her self-proclaimed nemesis, Lewis, who returned to work in November.
“I’m not saying, ‘Oh my God, I lost because of them,'” she said, “But he abused me throughout the campaign and said things that weren’t true.”
In her claim, George accused Lewis of having a conspiracy team including Mayor John Hamon; Councilmember Sharon Roden, who lost her bid to keep the 1st District seat; reelected Councilmembers Steve Gregory and Fred Strong, and “possibly” journalists from The Tribune and Paso Robles Daily News.
George accused Roden, Gregory, and Strong of voting “in unison” with the city manager’s agenda, and that Lewis had potentially conspired with various news media to spread false information and libel and slander campaigns.
“He got us all in hot water, now they are in hot water,” George told New Times.
Councilmember Roden told New Times she had never been told how to vote, and neither had the other council members.
“They never told me what their expectation was of what my vote should be,” she said. “I did my own homework—I don’t know why that’s so unbelievable to people.”
City Manager Lewis said he doesn’t find George’s claim to have any merit.
“There’s a lot to digest and unpack in there. It’s not solely focused on me,” he said. “It’s carrying her grievances with the media, with local community members. … It seems to be painted with a really broad stroke of the brush there as she tries to articulate whatever her concerns are.”
Lewis added that he didn’t submit his August claim as election interference, he submitted it to address a toxic work environment.
“My complaint goes back way before any of those candidates elected to run for office,” he said. “It’s nothing to do, from my perspective, on anything other than trying to remove the toxicity and the bullying and what I view as illegal practices occurring with one particular person in the city.”
George’s claim requests a list of remedies including the termination of Lewis, $500,000 for herself for injury, and for $1.5 million in recently allocated pickleball funding to be diverted to purchase the former Paso Robles Casino on Black Oak Drive and convert it into a homeless shelter, among other requests.
The Paso Robles City Clerk’s Office confirmed that the claim was received and will be processed within 45 days. Δ
This article appears in Dec 12-22, 2024.