UpdatedWed, Apr 28, 2021 at 5:42 pm PT
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Temecula City Council meeting. Top row: Mayor Maryann Edwards, City Manager Aaron Adams, City Attorney Peter Thorsen. Middle row: Mayor Pro Tem Matt Rahn, council members Jessica Alexander and Zak Schwank. Bottom: Council Member James Stewart. (City of Temecula)
TEMECULA, CA Temecula City Council Member Jessica Alexander has come under scrutiny both locally and nationally after she compared taking a stand against California s COVID-19 health mandates particularly mask-wearing to Rosa Parks struggle against racial segregation.
At Tuesday s City Council meeting, Council Member Zak Schwank respectfully encouraged Alexander to apologize for her April 13 comment. Wearing a mask is not a civil rights issue. It s not a battle. It s not a civil rights battle, Schwank said. Equating the two is offensive, and quite honestly, it breaks down all the work that we ve done over the past year.
The Knoxville City Council took its first steps in the city manager hiring process at its meeting Monday night. They appointed Assistant City Manager Heather Ussery as Interim City Manager, and will go through a process to find a replacement. Outgoing City Manager Aaron Adams says the council has a variety of options, and will complete the process in the most thorough manner.
“The council really seemed to focus on the need to recruit for this position. There’s a whole spectrum of things you can do here, which starts on one end to consider Heather as the permanent replacement. But there’s also another side that says you do need to recruit, see who’s out there that might be the best fit. They definitely leaned towards that. So as a staff, we have an RFP that we will bring out, and I will send on to the mayor and council, and that can start a whole process.”