McKay, Ann Marie CC
Subject: Copy of a letter from former city employee. (City Clerk please include in public record for October 14th meeting)
From: MJ Abraham
Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 1:59 PM
To: City Council <[email protected]>; Kiff, Dave CM <[email protected]> Cc: McKay, Ann Marie CC <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Copy of a letter from former city employee. (City Clerk please include in public record for October 14th meeting)
Dear Council Members and City Manager,
The letter below has been made public and has caused a great deal of concern in the community about what's going on in our City Human Resources and Fire Departments. The statements made by the former Deputy Fire Chief Crissy Teichmann should not be taken lightly or ignored. In all my years serving in city government, I have seen few employees experiencing such toxic environments speak out due to internal retaliation fears and jeopardizing their career. Ms. Teichmann is a rarity as I have spoken directly with many of our city employees in multiple departments over the last decade who chose to leave our city and not look back rather than deal with the internal abuse or expose it. The culture she speaks of has everything to do with our high employee turn-over and what I understand is the growing personnel related legal counsel demands. While the City has determined that the HR Dept. handled this employee situation appropriately the public testimony here says otherwise. I request that the City Manager retain an outside employment law firm to investigate Ms. Teichmann's allegations as they may involve employee discrimination/harassment, employee conduct, ethic violations, possible fraud and misuse of city funds and resources. This will ensure a neutral review of the incident and outcome facts and help resolve the lack of trust and transparency constituents have concerns about. Thank you for your time and consideration. MJ Abraham, Laguna Beach Resident/Founder LBCHAT.
Sent September 2025
Dear Members of the City Council,
I am writing in response to the comments made by former Councilman George Weiss at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. I feel compelled to speak up and ensure the facts are presented accurately.
Let me be clear: what Mr. Weiss shared reflects what I and others within the LBFD personally witnessed.
This is not about sides or politics—it is about truth supported by firsthand experiences and documented reports. To dismiss these concerns as "bogus" or "lacking all the facts" does not change their validity. To suggest otherwise undermines credibility and avoids accountability.
I personally reported to HR serious concerns, including what I believed to be an inappropriate relationship between Chief King and his assistant, as well as irregularities with her timesheets. These were not isolated McKay, Ann Marie CC
Subject: Killing the Messenger / What's True
From: Michele Monda
Sent: Saturday, October 4, 2025 7:25 AM
To: McKay, Ann Marie CC <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: Killing the Messenger / What's True
Hi Ann Marie-
Could you please include this letter in Public Comments for the October 14, 2025 City Council meeting. If possible, please include the whole email including George's newsletter and Ms.
Teichmann's letter. If not possible, could you please let me know.
Thank you.
Michele
---- Forwarded message --
From: Michele Monda
Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Subject: Fwd: Killing the Messenger / What's True
To: Kiff, Dave CM <[email protected]>, Rounaghi, Alex <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, Sue Kempf <[email protected]>, Bob Whalen <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> Hi Dave-
I'm forwarding this to you although I'm guessing you're already seen this.
I watched the CC meeting from last Tuesday and am really dismayed at how this disclosure, and George, were treated.
For the four years that George was on the City Council I was part of his circle. In all that time he never once disclosed anything from Closed Session and we never asked him. For the City Attorney to twice try to shut him down with a bogus claim of disclosure is shameful as well as the attempt by CC members to discredit what he said. They were out of line.
Further, I am dismayed that this was not investigated appropriately as per your comment. The party involved, the Deputy Chief, has another view. I honestly expected better transparency from you given Laguna's experience with the last City Manager. I had to do CPRA after CPRA to finally get the city to investigate and you know how that turned out.
I ask that you open an investigation into this affair in the interest of transparency, honesty and cleaning up our city staff. Residents have lost a lot of confidence in the city and it shouldn't be that way. We thought we had a city team in place that valued doing a good, honest job. Please see that this is investigated properly and that leadership is held accountable. We need to have a well run city that residents can be proud of and have confidence in its proper running.
Thank you -
Michele
....---- Forwarded message --
From: George Weiss
Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Subject: Killing the Messenger / What's True
I am writing to provide background on a serious issue I raised at last week's city council meeting. This is a serious matter, and I do not cherish making it public, writing about it. In fact, it is very emotionally draining. I am doing so because it is the right thing to do. Bad behavior should not be condoned or ignored, and I hope you will join me in addressing it.
GEORGE WEISS
Focused on the future,
respecting the past.
Dear Readers,
I am writing to provide background on a serious issue I raised at last week's city council meeting.
This is a serious matter, and I do not cherish making it public, or writing about it. In fact, it is very emotionally draining. I am doing so because it is the right thing to do. Bad behavior should not be condoned or ignored, and I hope you will join me in addressing it.
This Common Principle Holds True "Failure to meaningfully address bad behavior and instead rely on 'work arounds' ends up costing a tremendous amount of time and energy and can result in significant costs to the organizations health, effectiveness, and reputation." That appears to be what happened in our city. Instead of directly investigating a legitimate HR complaint, the city spent far more time and energy trying to cover it up.
I learned of this situation upon meeting with Deputy Fire Chief Crissy Teichmann in the fall of 2024; other command staff members later corroborated her story. Ms. Teichmann, the first woman to hold the rank of Deputy Chief, retired in April 2025 after 25 years of service to our city. Shockingly, her 2 distinguished career of over two decades was met with silence—there was no news of a retirement party, not even "best wishes" from city council members.
Ms. Teichmann left due to an unhealthy work environment, allegedly caused by the Fire Chief's behavior and covered up by HR. The City Manager was informed in April when Ms. Teichman resigned but did not take appropriate action. At the September 23rd council meeting, city officials dismissed these concerns. City Manager Kiff claimed the matter was handled appropriately, while Councilwoman Kempf called my comments "bogus" and the Mayor suggested I lacked all the information.
While it is true I may not have all the information, and who does, what I had was more than enough to warrant speaking up. I encourage you to review my public comments, the responses from the council, and Ms. Teichman's letter to decide for yourself.
Furthermore, the City Attorney tried to stop me from speaking, implying I had received confidential information or from a closed session of the city council. Let me be clear: there was no closed session on this matter during my council tenure. All of my information came directly from Ms. Teichman and other staff members.
This is not the first time the city has used its resources to silence matters of public concern. I will write more about that in the future.
If you believe this situation warrants a formal review, please write to the City Council and ask for an investigation to clear the air and improve morale at the Laguna Beach Fire Department.
City Council Email: [email protected]
Thank you for reading. I welcome your thoughts at
Sincerely, George
Public Comments by George Weiss at City Council Meeting, September 23 2025 Review of Concerns at the Laguna Beach Fire Department
We lost key fire safety command staff recently due to HR enabling a cover up by not complying with standard HR practices. Here is the back story.
Bridgette Bambrick was hired as Assistant to the LBFD staff in December 2022 and served just short of a one-year probationary period. During that time, she received three outstanding quarterly performance reviews from Chief King. No prior LBFD probationary employee has ever received three outstanding quarterly reviews.
Ms. Bambrick's employment was terminated in November 2023, two weeks before her probation ended, stating she was "not a good fit". Upon her departure, facilitated by the Interim City Manager and HR Director Aggie Nesh, Ms. Bambrick got a severance package and signed a confidentiality agreement. This was highly unusual, as probationary employees can be terminated for any reason and are not entitled to severance pay.
During that time, LBFD command staff members raised allegations with HR of an inappropriate relationship between Ms. Bambrick and Chief King. This included spending hours together behind closed 3 McKay, Ann Marie CC
Subject: Setting the Record Straight
From: Crissy Teichmann
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2025 10:09 PM
To: McKay, Ann Marie CC <[email protected]>
Subject: Setting the Record Straight
Dear Members of the City Council,
I am writing in response to the comments made by former Councilman George Weiss at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. I feel compelled to speak up and ensure the facts are presented accurately.
Let me be clear: what Mr. Weiss shared reflects what I and others within the LBFD personally witnessed. This is not about sides or politics—it is about truth supported by firsthand experiences and documented reports. To dismiss these concerns as "bogus" or "lacking all the facts" does not change their validity. To suggest otherwise undermines credibility and avoids accountability.
I personally reported to HR serious concerns, including what I believed to be an inappropriate relationship between Chief King and his assistant, as well as irregularities with her timesheets. These were not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of unprofessional conduct that I and other staff experienced. For nearly a year, we endured a culture of retaliation, exclusion, and dismissal of every initiative I brought forward to strengthen the department—including employee development, ISO improvements, accreditation, and prevention programs.
When I raised concerns about the liability this created for the City, I was silenced, isolated, and targeted. The situation grew so intolerable that I requested reassignment, which was denied by Chief King. Contrary to the City Manager's claim Tuesday night that an "appropriate level of review" was conducted, no meaningful investigation ever occurred—no witnesses were interviewed, no facts were examined, and no accountability was pursued. Without a real investigation, there can be no accountability.
After 25 years of dedicated service to the Laguna Beach Fire Department, I made the painful decision to leave—not because I wanted to, but because I could no longer sacrifice my health and integrity to endure such conditions. Walking away from a career and department I loved was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made.
That is why I am deeply disappointed in the Council and City Manager's response.
By defending executive staff rather than pursuing accountability, you turned away from the values of honesty, transparency, and integrity. If this is the leadership standard being accepted, it diminishes trust in our city's governance.
Standing for truth is not easy when others do not want to hear it. Speaking truth to power is never easy—but it is necessary. Your job as council members is to protect residents and the City by seeking truth, maintaining accountability, and ensuring ethical and moral standards are upheld. That responsibility rests with you.
I urge this Council: show courage. Open an impartial investigation. Hold leadership accountable. Only then will the Laguna Beach Fire Department be restored to the professional, healthy, and trustworthy organization that both employees and the community deserve.
For compliance with the Brown Act, I respectfully ask that you not "reply all" to this message.
Ann Marie - I'd like to have this communication included as a response to public comment if that is possible, if not, what alternatives are there? Crissy Teichmann
Former Deputy Fire Chief
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