- In this video, Karen Macedonio says the legal costs were too much and so she resigned as Cal City council member.
- Macedonio had been in litigation against the city for a year.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Controversy and changes reign in California City... following the resignation of a city council member.
I’m Steve Virgen, your Cal City neighborhood reporter.
Karen Macedonio says she's leaving... because she no longer wants to deal with litigation against the city.
"This is probably the hardest decision I ever made because I ran to serve the people. But I can't serve the people if I bury myself in the process," says Macedonio, the former Cal City council member.
Macedonio has been fighting the city for a year.
Her council seat was challenged during that time - because she also serves as president of the East Kern Health Care District.
With just one week until a crucial court date, Macedonio said the legal bills were piling up.
She said she raised $7,500, but it wasn't enough.
"I just couldn't keep going. Not that I didn't want to. It was just financially impossible," Macedonio said.
California City Mayor Kelly Kulikoff expressed frustration that litigation carried out for a year.
"It didn't have to happen. We could've just had a resolution. We could've resolved this in the beginning. But instead having it come all the way to right before the court date? It ends up costing everybody a lot of money," Kulikoff said,
Kulikoff is confident that Cal City will win the case.
"I don't see one possibility of the city ever have been in the wrong just because how the law is written," Kulikoff said.
Macedonio still believes she was in her legal right to be a council member, but she is moving on.
"I'm going to find a pathway where my voice will make a difference," Macedonio said.
In her resignation letter, Macedonio said her 38 months as a council member was an “experience of a lifetime.”
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