The Morgan Hill City Council voted 4-1 in a tensely emotional Sept. 16 meeting to censure Councilmember Yvonne Martinez Beltrán over allegations of misconduct, including bullying and intimidation of her colleagues.
The vote comes as the result of a June 3 incident in which Councilmembers Soraida Iwanaga and Miriam Vega both alleged Martinez Beltrán bullied and berated them over the way they voted on a council agenda item which Martinez Beltrán had proposed.
According to the council resolution, Martinez Beltrán confronted Iwanaga after she voted against the item, accusing her of being “only here for the Mayor” and “not thinking for yourself.” Later at that same meeting, Vega claims, Martinez Beltrán confronted her similarly, asking her “What was that about?” in a way Vega said made her feel bullied.
Martinez Beltrán, however, characterizes the exchanges as normal policy discussions between councilmembers. In her tearful remarks, she called the censure unfair and the result of a double standard.
“I feel there’s one rule for me and another for everyone else,” she said. “The floor interactions in question were brief discussions regarding policy consistency and legislative alignment between elected officials. They lacked any objective metrics of intimidation—there was no yelling, no name calling and no physical overstepping.”
Other councilmembers pointed to what they described as a long history of poor conduct by Martinez Beltrán, of which the June 3 interaction is the most recent incident.
“I have served for four years now with Yvonne, and I too have had struggles with her beyond what’s been mentioned,” Mayor Pro Tem Marilyn Librers said in her remarks. “I have tried to resolve those, and she absolutely rejected my ability to try to resolve it. To me, and I have felt this way for the last four years, unfortunately, she is not a team player.”
A censure is a city council resolution to formally reprimand a member for willfully violating the body’s policies and norms regarding conduct, including its harassment and discrimination policies.
The decision comes more than a year after a controversy in July 2025 in which Martinez Beltrán accused mayor Mark Turner of physically assaulting her in an altercation at another council meeting, resulting in a workplace conduct investigation overseen by outside special counsel Shelline Bennett from the law firm of Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore. That investigation concluded there was no evidence to support Martinez Beltrán’s accusations.
Bennett was retained by the city to review the more recent concerns, and spoke at the Sept. 16 meeting prior to the censure vote to recommend that the city council adopt the resolution.
“When you then combine Councilmember Martinez Beltrán’s false allegations against Mayor Mark Turner with her more recent physical intimidation, aggressive and intimidating tactics … the picture of disrespect for this council and disregard for city and city council policies is abundantly clear,” Bennett said. “The city council should set the standard of behavior that the city, its employees and its residents look up to.
“You are the role models—not just in your own conduct, but in calling out and not tolerating or condoning behavior and bullying that is contrary to your policies.”
The public comment period that preceded the vote saw emotional testimony both for and against the censure, though with more commenters speaking on Martinez Beltrán’s behalf. A contingent of her supporters lined the front seats of the council chamber sporting signs reading “We Support Yvonne” and similar messages.
Armando Benavides, who witnessed the June 3 exchange between Martinez Beltrán and Vega, said that the interaction had seemed routine.
“I was present during the interaction, I was standing right there in front of all three of them,” Benavides said. “I did not hear anything, I did not absorb anything that raised a red flag for me. I was there. If you want to challenge my credibility, OK, but what I’m hearing right now is not my perception of what happened.”
Prominent local resident and nonprofit volunteer Kathy Sullivan recalled a pattern of what she described as selfish behavior by Martinez Beltrán when interacting with the charitable organizations she participates in.
“She does not respect or want to collaborate with others,” she said. “She is a self-serving bully who is in public office for personal and financial gain. She has a practice of expecting not to pay for admission to community fundraising events, and takes advantage of these organizations for photo ops.”
Others described the censure as a “character assassination” at a politically sensitive time, with Beltrán’s council seat up for reelection in the coming months.
“The mayor’s office is being used as a political weapon,” said Dan Cloutier, noting that the decision is likely to play a role in the upcoming election. “Withdraw this censure, and let the voters decide in November … The councilwoman deserves our support, not a kangaroo court.”
Iwanaga expressed disappointment in the outcome but ultimately reinforced the decision as necessary to maintain appropriate standards of conduct at City Hall’s highest level of representation.
“Public service is not meant to be easy,” she said. “This indeed has been a very difficult decision to make, but I have absolutely no doubt that it is the right one. My desire is that we can move forward from this moment with grace, honesty, humility and a shared commitment to treating one another well.”
Vega declined to give extensive comments regarding her decision, remarking that nothing she could say would heal the divisions that have formed in the community as a result of the repeated scandals.
“I don’t feel like, whatever I say, there is a winning side,” she said. “Whenever we walk out on the dais and [the chamber] is full like this, it’s not because of something positive, it’s always something divisive… It’s too bad that our community only comes together when it’s something divisive, and I wish that we can be different.”
The council ultimately voted 4-1 to approve the censure, with Martinez Beltrán the sole dissenting vote.
