An El Monte department chief retaliated against a longtime code enforcement officer for activities related to the officer’s role as president of the union representing civilian city employees, according to documents and sources familiar with a recent investigation that also involves allegations of corruption against the city manager.
Ed Rardin, a neighborhood services officer and president of the El Monte unit of SEIU Local 721, claims City Manager Alma Martinez instructed Steve Fowler, the Community and Economic Development Department director, and Jaime Saldaña, Rardin’s immediate supervisor, to initiate disciplinary action against him in retaliation for public allegations of corruption against the city’s top administrator.
A somewhat vaguely worded memo to Rardin — dated June 4 from Rigo Gutierrez, director of human resources and risk management — summarizes an independent investigator’s report following a complaint filed with HR last year.
Rardin’s allegations against Martinez include an illegally fenagled increase of $150,000 to her $280,000 salary and arranging an extension to a $30 million contract precluding competitive bidding for her husband’s trash collection business, Valley Vista Services.
In an email to Los Angeles County prosecutors, Rardin wrote, “The city properly acquired a firm, (Public Sector Personnel Consultants), to do a class (compensation) study for ALL employees, which included the City Manager. That study shows that the salary of the City Manager was ‘at market’ with a salary of $294,000, then $280k with an expected 5% COLA. It is my belief … that she got the results, didn’t like her findings, and solicited a separate vendor to give herself more of a favorable comparison at that (May 14, 2025) Council Meeting, using different comparative cities as a justification.
“No taxpayer should accept any justification for someone going from $250,000 to $367,500, a 47% increase, within 18 months. And, also worth noting, if you look at the agenda for that council meeting … no documentation is given for the CM’s raise. Not even a staff report and nothing identifying the appraiser, the origin of the contract, his findings, or even his full name mentioned in the presentation. All key elements which warrant and deserve an investigation.”
Rardin has also alleged that the city manager distributed gift cards valued at approximately $14,500 to 290 city employees in November, comparing it to extortion because vendors with city contracts paid for the cards.
“At the lunch, she read a lengthy list of vendors who contributed and stated that our Finance Director had obtained the gift cards from Target,” he said in an email to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. Rardin argued that the money was given because businesses feared that if they didn’t contribute, “they might lose whatever contract they had or would not receive favorable decisions when dealing with city management.”
After reporting that to a slew of local, state and federal authorities, Rardin alleges Martinez made his departmental and immediate supervisors issue reprimands and harass him.
No authorities have pursued any legal actions based on Rardin’s reports.
The recent HR-commissioned investigation and report by Barbara Raileanu from the Woodruff law firm in Costa Mesa “sustained” several of Rardin’s complaints, but not against Martinez or Jaime Saldaña, Rardin’s immediate supervisor in the Neighborhood Services Division.
“The investigator found that the timing and content of (a May 21, 2025) email, coupled with Fowler’s knowledge of Rardin’s emails to (union) membership encouraging them to attend City Council meetings, creates an inference that Fowler was, more likely than not, motivated by Rardin’s union activities in having Saldaña issue this email to Rardin,” according to the city staff memo, which said the email was “about Mr. Rardin’s failure to close cases without corresponding code enforcement action.”
Also “sustained” were reprimands for using his office for church-related work on his day-off — Rardin is a local Church of Latter Day Saints bishop — along with failing to notify Saldaña that he was attending union-related meetings during work hours and a request to vacate his office, according to the memo.
City officials will issue Rardin a “revised written reprimand consistent with the investigator’s findings and will return” him to his office.
In a June 11 letter union officials expressed concerns about the investigation to Martinez.
“The report drafted by the City of El Monte, which was meant to summarize the findings of the investigation based on claims raised by Ed, appears to cover up and dilute the full results of the claims initially raised,” SEIU Local 721 Regional Coordinator Charles Leone and Worksite Organizer Chase Daseler wrote. “We are concerned with the mere appearance of a deliberate campaign against a sitting President of the General Unit, and the impact this has on the core functions of our Union.
“While interactions may not always be harmonious and agreeable, we need your continued support and respect for the role this Union and our Member Leaders have in the workplace to lift up their colleagues and the community,” the letter concluded.
Rardin said his “quest” to hold Martinez accountable that has gone on now for over a year “started because of a series of alarming interactions between our upper union leadership and our City Manager,” he wrote in an April 8 letter to the City Council. I never would have anticipated the City Manager would continue to provide such blatantly questionable decisions, like her salary increase or the premature trash contract renewal. All this while I was seeking a criminal complaint from the LA Public Integrity Unit, LA FBI Field Office and (the state Fair Political Practices Commission). I truly believe the bigger story lies with these agencies and their utter refusal to investigate, even though it is clearly their mandated responsibility. …
“It is not as if these agencies have an ongoing investigation or they determined my accusations were false or not a violation of law,” according to Rardin. “They simply refused to look.”
Rardin, who is also a lifelong El Monte resident, asked council members to bring his “retaliation complaint to resolution and address those concerns I called out as a whistleblower.”
He requested council members help him obtain the independent investigator’s full report that Guitierrez’s memo summarized. He also called for the council to terminate the city manager’s employment contract.
Rardin quoted the “termination for cause” clause in her employment agreement, which states, “Any other action or inaction by Employee that materially and substantially impedes or disrupts the performance of City or its organizational units, is detrimental to employee safety or public safety, violates properly established rules or procedures, adversely affects the reputation of City, its officers or employees, or has a substantial and adverse effect on City’s interests. …
“To make the city whole, I would suggest treating El Monte like any Prosecutor’s office when it’s discovered that one of their own acted maliciously,” Rardin wrote. “I call for a complete forensic review of all personnel and contract decisions which occurred during the City Manager’s tenure. There are too many civil lawsuits and employees experiencing retaliation, some even placed on excessive extended leave. …
“And lastly, I ask that the city contact those agencies referenced in the whistleblower files and demand that they do their thorough investigations so we can once again establish public trust,” Rardin added. “What does the city have to hide? …
“I recognize these are grandiose and possibly unrealistic suggestions, but may I offer — no more so than expecting employees to abide by rules and policies in which their leadership refuses to abide.”
City officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Councilman Martin Herrera declined to speak on matters pertaining to city personnel.
As of publication a public records request was pending for the investigator’s report on Rardin’s complaints.