Just about everyone is calling on Omar Torres to resign his city council seat. The two leading business associations in the district he represents, the executive director of the South Bay Labor Council that supported his election and his colleagues on the dais all want him to stand down.
Torres has remained defiant, skipping council and committee meetings, and remaining out of the public eye while the San Jose Police Department completes its investigation. No criminal charges have been filed against him. If laws were broken, his resignation could be a bargaining chip in a plea bargain.
In 2005, San Jose City Councilman Terry Gregory resigned after pleading no contest to 11 misdemeanor corruption charges. Supervisor George Shirakawa quit his seat in 2013 as part of a plea deal to serve a sentence in county jail rather than state prison for felony theft of public dollars and campaign funds.
Without criminal charges, it’s much harder to remove the councilman. Mayor Ron Gonzales served out his term even though the council voted 10-0 in 2005 to censure him and strip away his committee posts after he secretly promised $11.25 million to a waste hauler.
Through his attorney, Torres has admitted discussing sex acts with and genitals of minors in text messages, but contends it was fantasy “role play.” Torres paid a Chicago man $22,000 to keep the allegations out of the public eye and went to the police when the demands for money continued.
“Omar Torres is holding his seat hostage,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told reporters outside the rotunda before Tuesday’s city council meeting. According to the city charter, Torres can be removed if he misses five consecutive meetings. His first absence, on Oct. 8, was excused due to illness. Presumably, Torres could drag the process out by showing up for roll call or providing a doctor’s note every fifth meeting.
City officials are looking at Section 405 of the city charter which states that “The Council shall be the judge of the election and qualification of its members.” It empowers the council to conduct hearings and subpoena witnesses related to “conduct constituting grounds for forfeiture or loss of their office.”
The process is by no means clear, and absent criminal charges and a plea bargain, may require an expensive recall election to extract the councilmember.
Torres made $160,384.23 in salary and benefits in 2023, according to Transparent California, and pay rates rose July 1, 2024.
Meanwhile, prospective successors are jockeying for position should the seat become open to being filled by an appointment or special election.
Among those angling for a position should Torres vacate his post is Irene Smith, who lost to Torres in the 2022 general election. The unconventional candidate, however, has little support amongst current council members and would be unlikely to win an appointment.
Mayor Mahan reportedly met recently with Carl Salas, a popular community member who founded a boutique engineering firm and served as president of San Jose Rotary Club though hasn’t held public office. Another Naglee Park resident, nonprofit executive Richard Ajluni, has been mentioned as a potential appointee as well.
Should the council need an experienced councilperson who could hit the deck running, they could look to former D3 councilman and retired prosecutor David Pandori. There’s precedent for that. The Council tapped former councilmember Marjorie Matthews in 2014 to serve out Kansen Chu’s term when he won a state Assembly seat.
Planning commission chair Anthony Tordillos has been having conversations as well, and though he’s officially not seeking the position, he had a prepared statement with his thoughts about the district ready when we called him. Like Torres, Tordillos identifies with the LGBTQ+ community, is a person of color and would likely be more labor-friendly than the other prospects.
