San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan says he intends to begin proceedings to remove embattled Councilmember Omar Torres under the city charter amid an ongoing investigation into Torres over child sex abuse allegations.
Doan said the Torres scandal is shedding light on needed changes to the city charter — including the creation of a mandatory administrative leave policy if a councilmember faces a felony criminal investigation.
“I am researching every avenue possible to begin proceedings to remove Councilmember Torres from office as I am empowered to do under our city charter,” Doan told San José Spotlight.
It comes as Torres — who has maintained his innocence but is dodging the public eye — requested council approval for a 30-day leave of absence that would allow him to keep skipping meetings without being removed from his seat under the charter. Councilmembers have declined to consider Torres’ request at their next Oct. 29 meeting.
He’s already missed two council meetings since the scandal first went public earlier this month, drawing criticism from Mayor Matt Mahan who accused Torres of holding his council seat “hostage.” Yet Mahan and a majority of the San Jose City Council agreed to excuse Torres’ absence from one of those meetings — enraging members of the public and even some City Hall workers.
“I was the lone vote to not excuse the absence request of Councilmember Torres and I predicted he would draw this process out as long as possible. Yesterday, I saw a memo written by Torres asking for three more excused absences and that he intends to come back to his seat, as if everything is OK,” Doan told San Jose Spotlight. “Well, everything is not OK.”
It comes nearly two weeks after Torres admitted to sending lewd texts about minors on Oct. 10, when they were revealed in police filings about the ongoing criminal investigation into the embattled District 3 leader. No charges have been filed and Torres has maintained his innocence — claiming the texts were fantasy and role-play.
The San Jose police union was the first to call for Torres to resign that same day. A week later, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, San Jose Downtown Association, Vietnamese American Organization and Jean Cohen, head of the South Bay Labor Council which endorsed Torres’ 2022 council run, have all followed the city council in calling on Torres to resign.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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