Laguna Niguel Mayor Pro Tem Rischi Paul Sharma abruptly resigned from the city council April 6.
“It has been a distinct honor and pleasure to have served the people of Laguna Niguel and to have worked alongside our city staff. I wish you [City Manager Tamara Letourneau] and the team all the best and am confident the leadership that is in place will continue to move the City of Laguna Niguel forward,” Sharma wrote in his resignation letter.
It is unclear why Sharma stepped down and he was not immediately available for comment.
The city council will select a new Mayor Pro Tem and decide how to fill the vacancy at a future council meeting.
“I thank Mr. Sharma for his years of dedicated public service as an elected leader. On behalf of my City Council colleagues, we appreciate his contributions and wish him and his family the best,” Mayor Kelly Jennings said in a statement.
Sharma was elected to the council in November 2020 for a four-year term. He was appointed mayor pro tem for a one-year term in December 2022.
He served a brief stint as mayor to fill a vacancy when Councilwoman Sandy Rains stepped down from her mayoral role in February, until the council appointed now-Mayor Kelly Jennings to the seat.
When he was reappointed to his role as mayor pro tem last month by his colleagues, Sharma said in a statement, “I want to thank my City Council colleagues for their continued support of me in this role, and I look forward to working together to accomplish great things for our City.”
Before being elected to the city council, Sharma served as an ambassador for the Laguna Niguel Chamber of Commerce and as an appointee of the Laguna Niguel Military Support Committee.
He sat on several city boards, including the Investment, Banking, and Audit Committee; Military Support Committee; Traffic and Transportation Commission; Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control; and California Joint Powers Insurance Authority.
Sharma is the CEO of Assembly Pointe Financial, a financial services firm specializing in corporate benefits.
