With Councilmember Omar Torres continuing to defy calls to resign, residents will attempt to remove him from the San Jose City Council through a recall.
San Jose City Councilmember Omar Torres listens to a question following a rally in front of San Jose City Hall to express concerns over Mayor Matt Mahan’s plan to reallocate Measure E funds in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
Torres, 43, has served District 3 for nearly two years after defeating Irene Smith in the 2022 General Election by winning 65% of the vote. He campaigned as an advocate for youth and families, often speaking about his tough upbringing in the Guadalupe-Washington neighborhood and how a drive-by shooting near an elementary school while he was a teen spurred him to become more active in his community.
“If you thought this was all wholesome and harmless, you wouldn’t have let anyone blackmail you over it,” resident Kathryn Hedges wrote in an email to the City Council calling for Torres to resign. “Your excuse that you fell into some kind of honey pot trap and didn’t know how to stop texting gross sexual things without it being awkward is so ridiculous that it’s either a lie or you’re too dense to be an elected official.
“Yesterday, I saw a memo written by Torres asking for three more excused absences and that he intends to come back to his seat as if everything is OK,” Doan told The Mercury News Thursday. “Well, everything is not OK. I believe our city charter needs to be changed to better handle situations like this, including the creation of a mandatory administrative leave policy if a councilmember finds themself as the subject of a felony criminal investigation.
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