Attorneys of suspended Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who faces federal corruption charges, filed court papers Dec. 20 showing a resolution of his lawsuit against the city and then-City Controller Ron Galperin over the cancellation of his salary and benefits.
After the City Council voted to reinstate Ridley-Thomas’s salary and benefits earlier this month, Ridley-Thomas will receive $254,000 in back pay and $99,500 in attorneys’ fees.
“[Ridley-Thomas] will dismiss his claims after receipt of the settlement payment,” his attorneys wrote in court documents filed Dec. 19 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Upinder S. Kalra.
Prior to the settlement, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 1 Dec. 7 to reimburse Ridley-Thomas about $365,000 in back pay and benefits and to reinstate both going forward, as well as attorneys’ fees.
Councilman Curren Price of District 9 said the council’s decision “corrects an action that should have never been allowed to happen in the first place.”
“Council member Ridley-Thomas has a right to due process and that should take place in the court of law,” Price said in a statement.
In October 2021, Galperin halted Ridley-Thomas’s pay after he was suspended from the council.
Galperin said at the time he “could not use city money to pay the salary of an elected official facing federal bribery and fraud charges who is now legally unable to do his job.”
Ridley-Thomas countered with a lawsuit claiming the suspension was politically motivated. Galperin, who was first elected in 2013, lost his bid for reelection in the June 2022 primary election.
“Not only did Mr. Galperin take this unilateral action to further his own political interests, but he did so without any authorization in the City Charter. His carefully enumerated and prescribed duties under the Charter do not include authority to terminate salary and benefits,” the lawsuit read.
Ridley-Thomas is facing indictment over bribery allegations while on the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors for scheming with a former dean from the University of Southern California to funnel hundreds of thousands of county dollars through the university’s school of Social Work to gain entry for his son into the school’s graduate program with paid tuition.
Ridley-Thomas has pleaded not guilty to bribery, conspiracy, and fraud.
Heather Hutt—previously the California State Director for then-Senator Kamala Harris from 2019 to 2020—was appointed by the council in September to represent Ridley-Thomas’s 10th District in his absence.
