The Carmel City Council announced that it stands by its city attorney 100 percent against Voices of Monterey Bay’s challenges to his resumé, but those officials provided no real documentation or other information to support their conclusion. City Attorney Glen Mozingo provided council members with paperwork of some sort but would not let them keep copies.
In one key area, involving congressional awards claimed by Mozingo, the council’s statement as read by Councilwoman Carry Theis mischaracterizes the name and import of one of the awards claimed by Mozingo — changing it to an obscure Republican Party award rather than the major Congressional award that he had claimed in writing.
For part two of her two-part list of proofs, she also said Mozingo had verified his membership on a British arbitration court though no one had questioned that portion of his résumé.
On his application for the city attorney position, Mozingo wrote, “I am the recipient of both the United States Congressional Medal of Distinction and United States Congressional Gold Medal for my work in aiding Congressional Conference Committees of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, where I assisted in negotiating legislative proposals that resulted in the passage of significant legislation of highway funding… .”
Theis said Mozingo had provided the council with evidence to support his claim of having received “National Republican Congressional Committee awards.” That’s not what he wrote on his résumé.
The first award mentioned in Mozingo’s résumé, the United States Congressional Medal of Distinction, is in reality a GOP award given to campaign contributors, as the Monterey Bay Partisan and Monterey County Weekly reported last year.
However, the second award, the Congressional Gold Medal, is a much more prestigious honor that has been likened to a civilian Medal of Honor. It is awarded by the full Congress for major achievements. Its recipients so far this century have included Dr. Michael DeBakey, Shimon Peres, Raoul Wallenberg, Bob Dole, Jackie Robinson and Pope John Paul II. Golfers Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus also made the list this century.
Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela are recipients. Mozingo is not. So when Theis says the council found his résumé to be “correct in every manner,” she was incorrect.
Voices made several attempts to question Mozingo about his claims before publishing articles on the topic, but he declined.
Theis referred to the Voices’ reports as “libelous and deflammatory” (sic) and “entirely without merit.”
The council had remained silent for weeks following the Voices pieces but finally arranged to meet with Mozingo in closed session to discuss his claims. The council opened Tuesday’s regular council meeting with a short report on their conclusions, and took no questions.
Theis reported that Mozingo had voluntarily supplied the council with diplomas, certificates, licenses, memberships and other evidence. But the only other specific she cited, in addition to the partisan fundraising award, involved his membership on the London Court of International Arbitration. Membership on the London Court of International Arbitration was not among the questionable memberships claimed by Mozingo.
Voices noted Mozingo is a member of the California Bar, but reported in March it has been unable to verify his contention that he is a member of the British bar association, the Legal Society of England and Wales. Theis did not address that or most of the other entries questioned in past Voices reports. See those issues here and here.
As Voices reported previously, the city asked Mozingo during the application process whether he had ever been accused of malpractice. He said he had not, although court records show that he has twice been sued by clients on allegations of professional negligence and in one of those cases, an appellate court labeled it a malpractice action. Theis didn’t mention any of that.
Voices filed a public records act request Wednesday morning for the documentation provided by Mozingo. The city deemed his original résumé a public record and released it to the press and public, so it seemed logical that his supplemental documentation would be deemed public as well. However, City Clerk Tom Graves said on Thursday that the council had not kept any of the materials provided by Mozingo, so the city has no documents to turn over.
With no discussion of the materials provided and withheld and no discussion of the materials covered, Mayor Steve Dallas asked the other council members whether they concurred with Theis’s report and each did, Carolyn Hardy, Jan Reimers, Bobby Richards and Dallas himself, who added a hearty “absolutely.”
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By Royal Calkins