Stockton City Council "Admonishes" Mayor Anthony Silva

The Stockton City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night in support of a "resolution of admonishment" against Silva for disclosing the name of a City Manager candidate, allegedly against confidentiality rules.

Councilman Michael Tubbs voted for the admonishment:

"The biggest problem Stockton has suffered from for the past 50 years is a lack of leadership, so I think the public should be happy that the council is sitting up and saying, 'we'll hold one of our own accountable.'"

Last month Silva revealed that Coachella City Manager David Garcia had been selected to replace Bob Deis before it was official.  Garcia later withdrew from consideration. 

At last night's meeting the public comment lasted about 90 minutes, and most of it was from Stocktonians in support of Silva, like John Feist:

"We see Mayor Silva. He's one of us. We voted him in. We want that man to be our Mayor and we don't want you guys trying to undermine him. You guys need to change."

 The City Council voted to send Silva's actions to a civil grand jury. Mayor Silva is defending himself:

"The release of this information, that I promise you, I acted in good faith, some has referred to this as a witch hunt. At the worst case, this will find to be a highly technical error, or according to some attorneys, no violation was committed at all."

Silva said he welcomes the opportunity to air the issue before a grand jury.