Editorial: What can be done about Carson’s controversial city clerk?

When an employee’s conduct becomes erratic or threatening, employers have options from counseling to termination. But what happens when that employee is an elected official?

It’s a question that the city of Carson has been pondering in recent months as allegations of bizarre and threatening behavior by City Clerk Jim Dear have piled up.

Though in his current position for less than a year, Dear has been an elected official in that south Los Angeles County city since he joined its City Council in 2001 — and often a controversial one. (In 2008, he was the subject of a failed recall election.) But when Dear traded in his part-time council gig for the job as a full-time boss in the clerk’s office, things allegedly went downhill fast.

Many staff members found his manner more than a little alarming. According to an independent report commissioned by the city manager, they described irrational and erratic behavior that scared them so badly, some laid out escape routes in case Dear were to “snap or go postal.” They said he was prone to mood swings and extreme anger, yelling and cursing in the office. They also reported that he made racist comments about African Americans, regularly bullied people in City Hall and made it a hostile workplace.

The testimony — available in a publicly released report — amounts to little more than allegations, which Dear says were all made up by jealous political foes. But the fact that so many employees recounted similar behavior suggests that there may be a real problem that needs to be addressed. Dear’s public outbursts at recent council meetings only lend credence to the staff complaints.

If he’d been appointed, Dear would probably have been shown the door by city officials appropriately worried about the safety of the staff and the city’s exposure to lawsuits. Instead, they are doing what the law allows. The clerk’s staff was relocated elsewhere in City Hall, and the council is expected to vote Tuesday to censure Dear and limit his activities there. But because he’s a local elected official, he can be removed from his post in only two ways.

One is through a quo warranto case, in which an elected official is found by a court to be physically or mentally unfit for duty or unable to perform the job — such as if a person elected to be city attorney turns out not to be a licensed lawyer. Misconduct, however, does not make someone unfit.

The other is a recall election. Dear’s critics say they’ve gathered enough signatures to force a recall vote, and they plan to turn in their petitions Tuesday.

It is not easy to remove a sitting elected official, nor should it be. The law was written that way to guard against retaliation by political enemies. That leaves it up to Carson’s voters. They hired Dear — repeatedly — and if he needs to be fired, they ought to be the ones to do so.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook