Rialto, California mayor Deborah Robertson is suing her own city for $7.5million - and is STILL running for re-election

A California mayor is suing her own city for $7.5million – and is still running for re-election.

Deborah Robertson, 73, has been mayor of Rialto, a city of a little over 100,000 people east of Los Angeles, since 2012.

City documents show she filed three separate claims last year alleging age and racial discrimination, invasion of privacy and improper handling of her retirement fund, with a total liability she estimated at $7,482,000.

She has now taken her own administration to court in two lawsuits after it reviewed and denied her claims internally.

The extraordinary move has sparked outrage from residents and her fellow council members, who called it 'self-serving' and 'shocking'.

Deborah Robertson, 73, has been mayor of Rialto, California - a small a city of just over 100,000 people - since 2012 

DailyMail.com can reveal she filed three separate claims against the city last year alleging age and racial discrimination, invasion of privacy and more

Councilman Rafael Trujillo, who is also running for Mayor, told DailyMail.com: 'It's shocking, because if you're not the fiduciarily responsible representative, then who is there for the taxpayer?

'She's so embroiled in all these lawsuits, she's lost sight of the direction of the city.'

Robertson's claim is equal to 3.3% of the entire city budget for the year, or about $75 per Rialto resident.

The claims she leveled against the city include:

• Her colleagues discriminated against her by not giving her ergonomic furniture after she was injured in a 2019 one-car accident 
• The city discriminated against her by not giving her a special security door in case of an active shooter, while giving another councilor one, because she is black
• Police looked her up on a law enforcement database without a good crime-fighting reason
• The city owes her compensation for giving her the wrong kind of retirement fund

Fellow Rialto councilman, Ed Scott, told DailyMail.com he worked closely with the mayor for years and is perplexed by her claims.

Fellow Rialto councilman, Ed Scott, told DailyMail.com he worked closely with the mayor for years and is perplexed by her claims

He said the city did offer Robertson and all other leaders ergonomic furniture, and they also eventually installed a security door in her office, but were delayed in part because of the pandemic and her plans to move office.

He said the councilman she called 'Caucasian' who got a security door first, was in fact Trujillo, a Latino.

'I don't think it was a fair analogy on her part that she was being singled out,' Scott said. 'I just think a lot of nothing was made of it.

'To my knowledge, she's always been accommodated when she's had an issue. They've changed her furniture in her office a number of times. So I'm not quite sure what that's all about.'

Scott, a Republican, said he himself had been a victim of police snooping, after pro-union officers allegedly searched his and his dead son's details on their database to dig up dirt against his re-election bid.

He won a $500,000 settlement from the city in November 2021 over it. But he said the mayor's near-identical claim with an eye-watering $6million demand didn't make sense, because she is a pro-union Democrat, with no reason to be smeared.

'I'm amazed by it. I've known her for a very long time, so I'm very surprised by it,' Scott said.

Trujillo said the city audited police records following Scott's claim, and found no similar improper searches against Robertson or other councilors.

'They checked everybody,' he said. 'There were explanations attached to every one of them. Everything cleared out for everybody.'

Robertson is pictured with California Governor Gavin Newsom. She claims the city discriminated against her by not giving her a special security door in case of an active shooter, while giving another councilor one, because she is black

Robertson is pictured receiving $2million for the Lake Rialto Project last year. She now claims the city owes her compensation for giving her the wrong kind of retirement fund

Robertson (pictured in 2010) claims her colleagues discriminated against her by not giving her ergonomic furniture after she was injured in a 2019 one-car accident

In one filing, Robertson seeks $1million from the city for 'impermissibly accessing and running Mrs. Robertson's personal information through the State of California's CLETS system' 

In another claim, Robertson seeks $5million for being 'indifferent and discriminatory regarding my personal safety after a domestic terrorism reporter' 

Trujillo said the mayor's lawsuits have left the city administration in disarray, without a trusted leader.

'There's a sense that she's just looking around for the next lawsuit,' he said. 'Is her time really being spent leading the city or is it being spent finding another opportunity to bring another lawsuit?

'She's lost sight of the direction of the city. People see it. She's been very erratic last year,' he added. 'People are seeing that she's not even attending some of her meetings.

'You start to question what her intentions are: being a steward of our taxpayer dollars? Or is it to have personal gains from the taxpayers?'

The mayor previously sparked controversy over her role in city grants to her daughter's charity.

Councilman Rafael Trujillo, who is also running for Mayor, told DailyMail.com: 'It's shocking, because if you're not the fiduciarily responsible representative, then who is there for the taxpayer?'

A 2020 legal investigation determined that she violated local, state and federal conflict-of-interest laws by voting to approve $200,654 in grants from the city's federal funding to the Bethune Center, a nonprofit of which her daughter Milele is the president, since 2012.

Milele served as treasurer of her mother's campaign committee during the same period.

Robertson denied any conflict, until the legal review organized by the city council forced her to recuse herself from funding decisions involving the charity.

'It seems difficult to argue the president, including an unpaid president, of a nonprofit organization would not have any 'tangible personal benefit' from a funding agreement that apparently provides 50% of the organization's annual funding,' attorney Randall Keen said in his June 2020 report.

Tax filings obtained by DailyMail.com show Robertson also received $145,000 in government funds to her own charity, the Deborah Robertson Foundation.

The organization received 501(c)(3) charitable status from the IRS in 2020.

The nonprofit is registered at her five-bed, $650,000 Rialto home, and is run by her 2020 mayoral campaign assistant Perry Brents, who retired as the city's director of community services the same year.

'We provide a community and learning center,' Brents, 64, said in a short video posted on YouTube in November 2022.

'Our mission is quite simple, you know. Provide strategic pathways and awareness of opportunities. We assist, and we need assistance with help in accomplishing our mission to provide awareness of the opportunities in local business that exist. Simple as that.'

The charity's latest 2022 accounts say it received a total $152,742 of contributions and grants that year and spent over a third, $51,661, on salaries and other 'employee benefits', as well as $35,500 in 'benefits paid to or for members'.

It says Brents's salary as treasurer was $25,000 for 30 hours a week. Robertson did not list any compensation for her five hours a week as 'CEO'.

Other costs cutting into the organization's charitable activity included $9,600 on 'occupancy', $3,655 on 'storage' and $8,138 on 'advertising and promotion'. The IRS filing did not disclose who those sums were paid to.

A newsletter Robertson published until 2022 said her charity gave a scholarship to 13-year-old student Allanah Mouton to help her attend college early, and provided 'free Covid-19 testing sites' in October 2022.

The newsletter also carried adverts for Robertson's 2024 mayoral campaign.

A complication in Robertson's fundraising came in November 2023, when city contractor Burrtec Waste Industries held an 'Appreciation Fundraiser for Mayor Deborah Robertson and to celebrate the accomplishments of the City of Rialto' at their Fontana offices

Trujillo said he was concerned that Brents's double duty as a 'campaign manager' and charity treasurer, as well as an alleged dual use of the charity's 'community center' as a political campaign office, left Robertson's organizations open to further conflict of interest claims.

'She called it the Mayor Deborah Robertson Community Learning Center. It was her campaign office,' Trujillo said.

'Perry was able to help her with her campaign, and there's questions of whether he was a paid consultant or campaign manager. He's been really involved on the political side with her.

Despite suing for $7,482,000 and taking her own administration to court in two lawsuits, Robertson is still running for re-election

'There's questions whether that's a conflict there between her foundation and her campaign.

'The conflicts are just mounting on top of each other.'

Another complication in Robertson's fundraising came in November 2023, when city contractor Burrtec Waste Industries held an 'Appreciation Fundraiser for Mayor Deborah Robertson and to celebrate the accomplishments of the City of Rialto' at their Fontana offices.

Burrtec holds a lucrative contract with Rialto worth several million dollars, signed off periodically by the mayor and councilors, for all residents' waste disposal.

It is unclear whether the funds raised went to her charitable foundation, or her mayoral campaign.

The IRS filing says Robertson's foundation provided 'Covid 19 testing and advertising, community service, and outreach' in 2022.

A 2021 report in the Redland Community News said the Foundation was one of 216 nonprofits to receive $3.4 million in CARES Act funding via San Bernardino County. The Deborah Robertson Foundation was listed as receiving the maximum grant of $20,000.

Mayor Robertson sits on some county government boards, including with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA).

Rialto councilman Scott said he had 'no idea' Robertson was receiving county funds to her charity.

'That's all news to me. I knew she had some kind of a foundation,' he said. 'But I had no idea she was getting Covid grants. That's extremely interesting.'