ILLEGAL: Montebello Police Chief Fired While on Medical Leave

February 18, 2025

By Brian Hews

When Montebello City Manager Raul Alvarez was hired in December 2024, according to sources, he had zero large municipality budget and operations experience. His career consisted of a stint on the staff of former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, eventually leaving under a cloud. Rendon got Alvarez a job in Lynwood, where he eventually moved to Huntington Park as Assistant City Manager, a city 1/3 the size of Montebello. Finally, in November 2024, Alvarez was hired by the City Council, led by former City Councilman David Torres.

In his first several months in that position, according to a lawsuit filed by Interim City Manager Arlene Salazar and a months-long harassment investigation into David Torres, Alvarez took actions to marginalize and oust multiple women holding executive management positions in the city, several of whom were black and Latino.

According to the lawsuit, starting in January 2024, Alvarez increasingly sidelined Salazar and others in a manner “that was publicly humiliating and made it difficult for her to perform critical job responsibilities,” including barring employees from weekly meetings, one-on-one meetings with various Department Directors within the city, excluding them from closed session city council meetings, even banning attendance at community events including Rotary and Soroptimists events.

Finally, in June of this year, Alvarez placed Salazar on paid leave; her court case is pending.

Now, through their actions at Wednesday’s regular meeting, Salazar and the Montebello City Council are certain to be in more legal hot water similar to the situation with Salazar.

Montebello Chief of Police Paul Espinoza has been on medical leave for months. In California, all employees on medical leave are protected under numerous state and federal laws. These protections ensure job security, a continuation of benefits, and protection against retaliation.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act protects employees from discrimination based on medical conditions, and California’s Labor Code Section 132a prohibits retaliation against employees who take medical leave.

Public Safety employees like Espinoza are covered under California Labor Code Section 4850. The Code provides full salary benefits for employees injured in the line of duty. Eligible employees receive 100% of their salary for up to one year instead of standard workers’ compensation payments. Espinoza had qualified for leave under 4580 according to sources.

Evidently, Alvarez and the City Council didn’t read those laws.  

At the Wednesday City Council meeting, Alvarez, with the Council’s support, fired Chief Espinoza, exposing the city to numerous violations of federal and state law and a lawsuit filed by Espinoza.

More alarming, the firing was done in Closed Session, which violated the Ralph M. Brown Act governing open meetings by legislative bodies because the City Council can only fire the City Manager.

Under 4850, employees have some job protections, but termination is not completely prohibited. However, an employer cannot fire an employee just because they are on 4850 leave. Some reasons include that the employer can prove the termination is unrelated to the workers’ compensation claim or injury, fraud, department-wide layoffs or budget cuts, misconduct or policy violations, criminal activity, or insubordination.

During the process, the city conducted what is called a Skelly hearing with Espinoza. A Skelly Hearing is a pre-disciplinary hearing named after a 1975 California Supreme Court case. It is part of due process to provide public employees with the reason for disciplinary action before that action is taken.

Sources tell LCCN that the city told Espinoza he was an “at-will” employee and was released because of his “management style.” He appealed the firing, and just two hours after his Skelly hearing, the city sent a letter terminating Espinoza.

In true City of Montebello style, just months earlier, Espinoza received a great performance review signed off by city officials.