Former Malibu city manager pick sues over withdrawn job offer
Ronda Perez wants damages after Malibu rescinded a $325,000 city manager contract she says she had already signed.
By Hans Laetz
Do you remember Ronda Perez?
Just 11 months ago, the former city manager in Palmdale was offered the job as the new Malibu City Manager.
But a city council member in Palmdale who had been having disagreements with Perez gave Malibu City Council members a package of disparaging information about her. The Malibu job offer was withdrawn after she had signed the contract, but before Mayor Bruce Silverstein signed the contract on behalf of the city.
Did she have the job or not? She claims she lost out on the $325,000-per-year Malibu contract after she had already taken the job. She had to take a job for much less money in some roadside town in Texas, where she lives now.
Perez is demanding damages for reputational harm, shame, mortification, humiliation, and loss of professional standing from the city of Malibu. She also wants punitive damages from the Palmdale City Council member.
No comment on this from the city of Malibu, of course.
Her lawsuit will be discussed behind closed doors at the Malibu City Council meeting Monday at 4:30 p.m. The public is not invited for that legal strategy session.