Councilmember Asks for Resignation Amidst Allegations

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - The Citrus Heights City Council voted to publicly censure Councilman Bret Daniels in a swift 4-1 vote on Thursday afternoon.

Daniels, who has been accused of stalking his high school girlfriend over the course of several decades, disputes the accusations and gave a long recount of what he claimed to be nothing more than a mutual friendship. Daniels stated that he was in a relationship with the unnamed woman from roughly 1976-1980 and was even briefly engaged to her, but since then they have remained distant, mutual friends.

“It will be a shame if this council feels they have to censure me for something that isn’t true,” said Daniels after his long recount of over 40 years written in a prepared statement. Pleading his innocence, he claimed, “There’s no findings because there’s no investigation.”

But the council did not feel the same way and according to the meeting’s agenda, in both 2008 and 2017 the police were in fact notified and investigated Daniels’ behavior.

The agenda reads:
“In 2008, the Citrus Heights Police Department investigated certain matters relating to Bret Daniels who was not then a City Council Member. In 2017, the Police Department investigated related matters regarding Council Member Daniels. Following usual protocol, the Police Department did not share the 2008 or 2017 investigation, or results thereof, with the City Council or other parties. However, in mid-May 2018, the City received a Public Records Act request relating to the 2017 investigation and, later, a second request relating to the 2008 investigation.”

In 2000 Daniels was fired from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department after abusing the use of classified information to track down a woman living in Tucson, Arizona while on a city business trip and then later lying about it.

“We have two representations that are worlds apart,” said Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins in response to Daniels’ own accounts. “I don’t expect you to represent yourself in any other way than in a positive way. This is not the first person that you sought out in a former relationship…Based on my history with you, I am inclined to believe the victim in this and support the censure.”

The rest of the council agreed. “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck I pretty much believe it’s a duck,” said Councilmember Jeff Slowey. “I don’t think this person, who I choose not to identify, would file a complaint unless they felt threatened. I look at that, I look at the incident in 2000 where it was related to a former girlfriend and it ultimately got you fired – I see a pattern there.

“To me, there’s a pattern of behavior here that I don’t find acceptable.”

Vehemently questioning Daniels’ credibility, Vice Mayor Bruins later stated: “I feel so strongly about these allegations - because they don’t just go back 10 years, they go back 20 years - that I’d like to call for Councilmember Daniels’ resignation from city council.”

“That ain’t gonna happen,” replied Daniels.

Mayor Steve Miller, Vice Mayor Jennie Bruins, Councilmember Albert J. Fox and Councilmember Jeff Slowey all voted in favor of the censure. Councilmember Bret Daniels voted no.