As an elected official, I believe serving Santa Fe Springs means making room for disagreement. Lately, decisions affecting children, gardeners and public expression have raised a difficult question: Must people stay on City Hall’s good side to be heard?
On September 29, the council voted 4–1 to remove me as mayor. I continue in my service as a councilmember. During this meeting, the published agenda allowed public comment but offered no substantive reason for the change by my council colleagues. As I later told the council from the dais, I had not been told why.
Residents have also raised concerns about transparency, fairness, and whether their voices are being heard. They deserve answers.
A public vote records who prevailed. An explanation provides residents with whether power was exercised responsibly.
The Los Angeles Times reported that sources linked my removal partly to my support for council candidate Odalys Valladares. Los Cerritos Community News reported tensions involving colleagues and staff, while acknowledging it had not obtained the disputed communications. My colleagues can choose the mayor, but residents deserve reasons. If misconduct justified removal, identify it; if an endorsement prompted it, explain why political independence deserves punishment.
My concern reaches beyond a title. During our latest council meeting, from the dais, I described being told I could not talk to city staff and questioned whether even saying hello could get an employee in trouble. I also said I had not received an expected agenda in preparation for the council meeting. How am I supposed to assist and represent residents without dependable access to information and staff?
That question of access extends to the baseball field. The city sent a letter on September 23 wherein it alleged improper field access involving Metro Baseball Academy and immediately stopped Metropolitan Little League activities. The league disputed wrongdoing. In the letter, the city tied reconsideration to completion of the nonprofit’s board election and a meeting with its newly elected board.
The Times reported allegations that Annette Rodriguez urged parents to replace the league’s board. City officials denied political retaliation. Still, why should children’s access to baseball depend on a nonprofit election? Public fields should never be used as bargaining chips in a nonprofit’s internal election.
On September 30, the city announced it was reinstating the previous agreement. That reversal was welcome. Families deserve to know why the dispute could not have been resolved while children continued playing.
The garden controversy raises the same concern about decisions imposed before residents are heard. The SELA Sun reported that gardeners received a closure notice and a deadline for termination and release paperwork. Officials paused the paperwork amid objections, and the city later approved replacement gardens at Clarke Estate and the Gus Velasco Neighborhood Center. Those improvements matter, but listening should precede disruption.
The September 15 materials for Ordinance 1173 raise another question: Who decides which activities require official City permission? The ordinance retains permit requirements covering handbills, petitions and surveys in parks and public facilities, alongside expanded exclusion powers. They also require permission for gatherings of any size at Heritage Park.
Consider a resident sharing religious literature, a prayer card, or a voter guide. Must that person first seek the City’s permission?
Safe parks require reasonable rules, but those rules must distinguish organized events and genuine hazards from peaceful expression. Clear protections are essential to prevent selective enforcement and preserve ordinary civic life.
These events do not establish a common retaliatory motive. They do demand scrutiny. When residents cannot tell whether disagreement will carry consequences, silence begins to look safer—and representative government inevitably suffers.
I am asking my colleagues to explain my removal, clarify staff communication rules, document the league settlement, and expressly safeguard peaceful expression. Cooperation requires room for honest disagreement, including the freedom to support candidates of our choosing.
Public facilities belong to the community. Access to them, and a voice in governing them, must never become rewards for political loyalty.
Joe Angel Zamora is a City Councilmember in Santa Fe Springs, CA.
