A potentially embarrassing lawsuit filed against the city of Pacifica by former finance director Maureen Lennon reared its head at a recent Times editorial meeting with three City Council candidates.

Challenger Tod Schlesinger cited the suit in alleging that Pacifica’s city government does not operate with sufficient transparency and even engages in wrongdoing behind closed doors.

Schlesinger specifically cited a letter, dated Sept. 30, in which Lennon’s attorney mentioned “rumored attempts” by members of the City Council and City Attorney Cecelia Quick to “hide or destroy documents.”

Councilman Cal Hinton responded to Schlesinger’s accusations by saying the challenger does not have all the facts.

“I know of no inappropriate actions by the city,” Hinton said.

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It turns out there’s a local angle to the case of Deborah Edgerly, the former administrator for the city of Oakland.

Edgerly (pictured below and to the right) was fired last month by Mayor Ron Dellums after she was suspected of tipping her nephew off to a gang investigation being conducted by Oakland police.

But that was just one of myriad improper things Edgerly is now accused of having done during her time at the top of Oakland’s bureaucratic pyramid. And many of those allegations are contained in a civil lawsuit filed against her by Millbrae’s finance director, LaRae Brown.

Brown served as Oakland’s controller until March 2007, when Edgerly fired her. In her suit, filed June 8 in Alameda County Superior Court, Brown said she was let go in retaliation after she uncovered all sorts unethical practices taking place on Edgerly’s watch.

Brown said she discovered in 2006 that the city’s payroll and accounting practices were completely out of whack and that Edgerly was overstating the city’s cash balance by $172 million.

But when she took her concerns to her supervisor, she was stonewalled, and Edgerly continued to provide misleading financial reports to the City Council, according to the suit, which surmises that Edgerly wanted to prevent the bad news from surfacing prior to her planned retirement in 2008.

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