In an unprecedented move, Hayward Mayor Barbara Halliday ended a contentious city council meeting Tuesday night an resumed it behind closed doors, excluding the public from participating. Only media were allowed into meeting.
The decision to recess Tuesday’s meeting to a nearby conference room followed a number of interruptions by police accountability activists and the family of Agustin Gonsalez, who was fatally shot by Hayward police officers in November 2018.
Hayward elected official were scheduled to consider a new council policy that would direct the city manager to ask the state attorney general’s office to investigate incidents when Hayward police officers are involved in fatal use-of-force incidents.
The Gonsalez had voice tepid support for the proposal. At their urging, Hayward Councilmember Aisha Wahab issued a council referral last June asking for third-party probe of police killings with Gonsalez’s death being the first to be investigated.
But just prior to the start of Tuesday’s meeting, one of the Hayward police officers involved in the Nov. 15, 2018 shooting of Gonsalez, appeared outside the council chambers. Once the police officer, Michael Clark, was identified by some members of the family, they began yelling at him. He then exited City Hall, but his appearance provokes anger among the family. Minutes after Clark left the area, several family were seen crying outside the council chambers.
Disruptions at Hayward council meetings have been common this year as activists have strongly pressed the city officials to initiated a third-party investigation of Gonsalez’s death. Activists and family believes the Hayward Police Department’s investigation, along with another by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, is partial to law enforcement.
In response to the interruptions during council meetings, the city had began citing a state code that prohibits repeated outbursts at public meetings. Halliday has attempted to use the law in the past, but without the follow-through she exhibited Tuesday night. On several occasions, Halliday has called a short recess amid the disruptions and later continued the meeting.
But the level of outrage inside the council chambers Tuesday night seemed to be fueled more by anger. At past meetings, the tenor had a mixture of sadness from public speakers sprinkled with angry outbursts. Some activists screamed at the large number of Hayward police officers and Hayward firefighters who lined the walls of the council chambers and roughly half the available seats.
Aisha Wahab and Mark Salinas introduced a request to have full joint meetings between council and school board. Al Mendall and Sara Lamnin voted against a public meeting to improve the school/City relationship. Al doesn’t even send his kids to Hayward schools and Sara doesn’t care.
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There was nothing said about smirking.
Hayward’s crime rate is already one of the worst in the bay. While the killing may have been unjustified, spending such a disproportionate amount of public resources on it is also undesirable. The body cam video is available to view.
The mayor and city council should focus on reducing crime and improving our schools. Hayward is in such a good location but has suffered for a long time due to high crime.
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You all need to recall these so called representatives. Starting with the mayor, You deserve better representation.
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Hayward Police Officers Association sends out mailers asking for monetary donations. Do they use a percentage of their membership dues for political purposes to endorse/contribute to their favored politicians in the city that they don’t even live in? Or do they use donations from the public to back their preferred candidate of choice? That’s one of the reasons why I don’t make a donation. I don’t usually vote for the people that they want to prop up to promote their best interest. Don’t forget the DUI Fire Chief and the disgraced Police Chief who retired while being investigated for a personnel issue that was never made public. If the Police Chief did embezzle money from the city, she should have been charged with a crime and not been rewarded with a hefty six figure pension. We will never know, because it was all swept under the carpet.
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Sara has done nothing.
Aisha got things this far. Being able to watch all the meetings, the council, each one of them try to shut her down, regularly. She also received a lot of pressure to rescind the request and she still pushed it.
The rest of Council would let the family beg for years.
She is not a part of the group.
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I actually didnt read anywhere about a smirk
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mayor halliday is the weakest mayor of all time. the rest of the city council are all cowards who blow hard when the weather’s good but duck and cover when things get rough. even the self-styled reformers like sara lamnin and aisha wahab very quickly got into lockstep with the rest of the hayward cabal once public scrutiny threatened the little power clique they were so lucky and happy to join. the hayward cops and firefighters actually run the town and the politicians will never stand up to them because they are beholden to them for campaign money and foot soldiers to knock on voters doors for them. they can literally get away with murder. city manager kelly mcadoo is only interested in protecting herself from scandal so she can move on to an even higher paying job in a better town after she has milked hayward dry with fat paychecks and a sweetheart house loan. city attorney michael lawson uses settlements and legal threats to bulldog low-income victims into silence and when that doesn’t work he uses obscure legal clauses to justify hiding information of city misdeeds from the public. police chief toney chaplin has the benefit of being new to the scene but he is already showing signs of bending to the police union and the rest of the hayward cabal. sad day when a town that constantly touts its diversity moves to cover up the police killing of a person of color who posed no serious threat to a bunch of burly cops who are armed to the teeth and have all the power in every confrontation. very sad indeed.
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Noticed Al Mendall shaking his pom poms at Hayward Police for being a top 1% CALEA rated agency. I would think that wrongful death lawsuits would affect an agency’s overall rating. Maybe Al should wait and do cheerleader splits when there aren’t any wrongful death lawsuits against the city.
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Did I read this right? The person regardless of police officer or not showed up and smirked at the grieving family? Wow Hayward. Show class.
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How heartless can a person be. What mind of normal human with any kind of heart just show up like that.
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