SANTA ANA – City Manager David Cavazos will be relieved of his duties but will receive a severance payout, council members decided Tuesday just a few weeks after he was placed on paid administrative leave by a new council majority.

On a 4-2 vote, the City Council agreed with Cavazos to an immediate “separation on amicable terms,” City Attorney Sonia Carvalho reported out of closed session that lasted just under two hours. Cavazos supporters Sal Tinajero and David Benavides opposed, while Vincent Sarmiento was absent.

Cavazos had at-will employment subject to termination without cause, Carvalho said, and the separation agreement includes severance consistent with his contract.

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His severance package is roughly $315,000 with about $3,500 in attorney fees and a payout of his accrued vacation benefit, Councilman Jose Solorio said.

Since Cavazos’ salary – as well as that of Acting City Manager Gerardo Mouet – were already in the city budget, “there will be no significant net increase in cost to the city when it pays the severance to City Manager Cavazos,” Solorio said in an email Tuesday.

Solorio said there were concerns about a report from Cavazos and Police Chief Carlos Rojas last fall that said crime in Santa Ana was at a historic low, when it generally failed to include crime statistics from 2013 to 2016.

In addition, Solorio said Cavazos and Rojas recently gave permission to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to add more than 40 detainees from Haiti into Santa Ana City Jail. The City Council recently voted to phase out the contract with ICE.

Last June, Cavazos was publicly censured by the International City/County Management Association for having a relationship with a subordinate Santa Ana employee, an investigation Pulido initiated.

Five votes were needed to terminate the city manager, but four were sufficient for administrative leave.

Council members Mayor Miguel Pulido, Juan Villegas, Solorio and Michele Martinez voted 4-0 on Dec. 28 to place Cavazos on leave as the council reviewed and investigated “current and former issues arising from his personal performance evaluations, including but not limited to the impacts of personal workplace relationships and the development of a romantic relationship policy,” Carvalho reported after that day’s closed session meeting.

Cavazos supporters Tinajero and Benavides have alleged that his ouster is payback of a political debt. Tinajero, Benavides and Sarmiento were on vacation when Pulido called the special meeting during a holiday week.

“This was a blatant hijacking of the city government,” Tinajero said on the dais Tuesday before going into closed session.

Pulido, Villegas and Solorio were backed by the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars leading up to the November election and which has been critical of the police chief.

Tinajero accused Pulido and police union President Gerry Serrano of agreeing to a quid pro quo to replace Cavazos with a city manager who would fire the police chief.

Pulido has not admitted to an alliance with the police union. Pulido deferred questions on the separation agreement to the city attorney.

In his first meeting with newly elected council members on Dec. 20, Villegas, an Orange County sheriff’s officer, agendized an evaluation of Cavazos, and no action was taken with all members present.

Cavazos is Santa Ana’s highest-paid city manager ever, with a salary of $343,225 and $18,485 in benefits per year, according to latest figures from Deputy City Manager Robert Cortez.

The former city manager could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But based on the separation agreement, he appeared to have had a change of heart over the past weeks on staying with the city.

When reached by phone the afternoon he was placed on leave, Cavazos told the Register: “All I can say is, I didn’t have a chance to be at the meeting and I’m committed to Santa Ana, and I’m very grateful for all the people who spoke on my behalf and we made tremendous progress in the last three years.”

Four people spoke in support of Cavazos during public comment prior to the closed session convening, fewer than at the Dec. 28 meeting when more than a dozen activists and leaders in the business community praised him for bringing the city back from the brink of bankruptcy to a surplus.

Benavides said before the meeting Tuesday, “If Miguel succeeds in running out the city manager, I’m hopeful we will have someone who can bring stability, public service to the community.”

“Right now we have a lot of uncertainty in the federal government with the Trump administration – very similar to what the city of Santa Ana is experiencing now with Miguel and his power grab,” Benavides said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7762 or jkwong@ocregister.com or on Twitter: @JessicaGKwong