UPDATE: Protesters Rally For Lake Elsinore City Manager

3/13 UPDATE: Lake Elsinore City Manager Bob Brady was terminated in a 3-2 city council vote Tuesday night. Mayor Brian Tisdale and Councilman Bob Magee voted against the termination; Mayor Pro Tem Daryl Hickman, along with council members Melissa Melendez and Peter Weber, voted to terminate.

for the full story.

ORIGINAL POST: Tonight’s Lake Elsinore City Council meeting is expected to be one for the history books.

“Hundreds” are expected to protest against city council members Daryl Hickman, Melissa Melendez and Peter Weber, and word of a recall will surely be mentioned.

A group calling itself “A Better Lake Elsinore” put out a press release Monday that read, “Hundreds of Lake Elsinore residents will come together at the city Cultural Center on Main Street Tuesday to demand substantial, systematic, and significant change in Lake Elsinore’s government, including calling for the removal of three councilmembers.”

The rally will begin at 4 p.m. at the Cultural Center, 183 N. Main Street, prior to the regularly scheduled 5 p.m. council meeting, according to the press release. 

“ABLE, whose members include dozens of local business leaders and community activists, was formed – and the rally scheduled – in response to the egregious action taken by a bare majority of the city council last Wednesday night,” the press release stated.

On March 7, a special city council meeting was held to discuss the annual performance evaluation of Bob Brady, who has served as the Lake Elsinore City Manager since 2005. After a majority of public commenters spoke positively of Brady’s service during the March 7 meeting, city council members met in closed session. When they emerged approximately 45 minutes later, City Attorney Barbara Leibold told the audience Brady's evaluation was being continued to March 13 and the city manager would be on administrative leave until that time.

to read more about the March 7 meeting.

The Lake Elsinore City Council has seen divide in recent weeks, with council members Daryl Hickman, Melissa Melendez, and Peter Weber seeming to take a stand against Brady, while Mayor Brian Tisdale and Councilman Bob Magee have shown support for the city manager.

“Hickman, Weber and Melendez have put their own political aspirations and dodgy schemes ahead of doing what’s right for the city and we simply will not tolerate it anymore,” said Harvey Ryan, a member of ABLE and a local business owner who also serves as board president of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. “To be blunt, we are extremely angry about this and a whole host of other questionable actions these three have taken recently.”