City denies council member’s claim

Last week the San Bernardino City Council discussed in closed session, a $2 million claim by Council Member Treasure Ortiz against the city. In her claim she alleges that a member of the police department illegally searched a state database to see if she had a criminal history.

What might be surprising is the Council then released a statement about the closed session:

In the spirit of transparency, and as the City Council has done in other matters involving elected officials, the City Council, on a 6-0 vote, released the following statement and information regarding its denial of the claim, as permitted by the Brown Act (see Gov. Code Sec. 54963(a).).

“On March 28, 2025, Councilmember Ortiz filed a claim for two million dollars ($2,000,000) against the City of San Bernardino, alleging that a former detective in the San Bernardino Police Department conducted an illegal search of her criminal history and then shared that information with her political opponent. In her initial report of the matter to Chief Goodman and in numerous social media posts and recorded videos she stated that she has never been arrested. Following a thorough review of facts and circumstances surrounding the original report to Mr. Goodman and the claim that she filed, the City finds the information in the claim to be false and dishonest.

The City’s review of this matter determined that the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) was lawfully accessed by authorized law enforcement personnel in March of 2020.

The City’s investigation finds the claim to be frivolous, filed in bad faith, dishonest and an attempt to swindle the City of San Bernardino out of $2 Million. For the reasons uncovered during the investigation into her allegations and the review of this claim, the City denies the claim. Ms. Ortiz will have six months to file a lawsuit should she decide to pursue the matter. If she does, the City is putting her and her attorney on notice that it will seek to recover all attorney’s fees and costs in accordance with the California Code of Civil Procedure. Furthermore, given that the false claims were filed under penalty of perjury and it is a crime to make a knowingly false claim against a police officer the potential criminal conduct associated with the claim is being reviewed.

Given that the filing of a two million dollar ($2,000,000) claim by a sitting Councilmember is highly unusual and has been the subject of news and social media reports, the City will release detailed information related to the investigation that was conducted and reviewed in connection with the evaluation of the claim. Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers, and I all hope that this transparency will bring to light the serious misrepresentations made by Ms. Ortiz. Her conduct as a Councilmember must be above reproach and her reckless allegations must be stopped before they result in real liability to the City.”