Cypress mayor calls special meeting over accusations of city manager misconduct

Cypress Mayor David Burke responded to serious allegations lobbed against City Manager Peter Grant last month by former Public Works Director Doug Dancs by calling for a special meeting on the matter.

Whether enough members of the Cypress City Council will attend remains to be seen.

Dancs accused Grant of “unlawful acts of misconduct” after the City Council honored him for a decade of service as city manager during the April 28 council meeting.

He called on councilmembers to terminate Grant’s employment but did not specify the alleged misconduct after City Atty. Fred Galante interjected and cautioned against potential violations of Dancs’ separation agreement.

“The appropriate response to a situation like this is fairly straightforward,” Burke said during Monday’s meeting of the City Council. “If accusations of serious misconduct are made against an employee that the council supervises, those accusations should be taken seriously and fully investigated.”

Burke’s move capped a contentious meeting that showed the suburb of nearly 50,000 residents in the thick of a political roil.

Dancs’ $183,000 separation agreement ended his longtime employment with the city on Dec. 31. The terms include confidentiality and non-disparaging clauses but Dancs felt within his right to discuss issues of unlawful conduct per another provision of the agreement when he spoke out April 28.

Attorney J. Scott Tiedmann of the Los Angeles-based Liebert, Cassidy, Whitmore law firm signed the separation agreement last October, as did former mayor and current councilmember, Scott Minikus.

A review of Cypress’ payment register shows the city paid Liebert, Cassidy, Whitmore more than $104,000 for legal services regarding a human resources matter dating back to May 2024.

In past comments to TimesOC, Galante, the city attorney, said he lacks authorization to disclose what preceded the separation agreement.

No formal discussion of Dancs’ curt but explosive allegations appeared on Monday’s council meeting agenda, but it remained a top concern of residents, who either called for an independent investigation or staunchly backed Grant’s service.

Minikus sounded off on Burke for almost 15 minutes during a portion of the council meeting dedicated to board and committee reports.

“He was directly responsible for and orchestrated everything that unfolded during that meeting,” Minikus alleged. “It’s clear that he lacks the ability to carry out the most basic concepts of leadership.”

Burke invited Minikus to send him an email outlining everything he didn’t like about him after previously interrupting to remark that his “broadside attacks” against himself and residents during board and committee reports violated multiple provisions of conduct codes.

Cypress City Manager Peter Grant has not publicly addressed Dancs’ allegations to date.

(James Carbone)

After Minikus concluded his comments, which included criticisms of local media, Burke made it known that he asked Galante for a full report of any investigations conducted in response to complaints or allegations made by Dancs, but had not received anything to date.

“What I think I need to do is call a special meeting where the council can consider directing the city attorney to provide us with all the relevant information,” Burke said. “And to be clear, I mean a public, open session meeting where residents can hear our deliberations and see our votes.”

Galante argued against it.

“I don’t have the authority to release a report,” he said. “The council has to make that decision. Beyond that, I cannot speak any further, because it would entail closed session information, and I think it would be dangerous to have an open session discussion about this.”

Burke asked his council colleagues if they would be available to attend a special meeting on either May 15 or May 19.

Councilmember Bonnie Peat and Minikus signaled that they would not be able to attend on either date. Councilmember Leo Medrano wanted to revisit the question of a special meeting at another time.

“My highest priority is the city of Cypress,” he said, “and I don’t want to see us accidentally walk our way into multiple lawsuits.”

Not hearing majority support for the special meeting, Galante attempted to argue that Burke could not call for one on such grounds. Burke questioned Galante what part of municipal code he based his argument on.

“You do not have a policy for calling a special meeting here,” Galante said. “However, if the majority of the council objects, that is the way the legislative process works.”

Burke pressed forward and called a special meeting for May 19 with an agenda item asking Galante to provide the council with access to any reports or investigations into complaints or allegations made by Dancs.

Councilmember Kyle Chang voiced support for the meeting for newer members of the council who were elected in November, like himself and Medrano.

“This is just a fact-finding mission,” he said. “We’re new to the council. We don’t know everything that the other council members know. I feel like we’re handicapped in that sense. I just want to get up to speed about what’s going on.”

If three council members are unable to attend the special meeting, it will be canceled for failing to meet the required quorum.