Isleton mayor stripped of title during chaotic, profanity-laden council meeting
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Isleton City Council voted 3-2 to remove Iva Walton from mayoral position.
- Grand jury report cited Walton’s permit violations and conflict of interest concerns.
- City faces $4.7 million debt amid public pleas to resolve infighting and focus.
The Isleton City Council ousted its mayor from her position Tuesday night, with council members saying she abused her position in attempting to fast-track the permitting process for a bar she owns.
The 3-2 vote to remove Councilmember Iva Walton as mayor came during a nearly five-hour meeting that descended into chaos, with expletives and insults exchanged among council members, city staff and other attendees.
Isleton, a city of about 800 along the Delta in Sacramento County, is in the midst of a financial crisis, according to a grand jury report released in June. The city owes $4.7 million, which would fall onto residents should the city go bankrupt or disincorporate.
The grand jury report — the 10th such report regarding Isleton released in the last 35 years — showed financial mismanagement by council and staff as well as code of conduct violations. Some of those violations involve Walton, who remains on the council but was voted out of her role as mayor on Tuesday.
Walton, elected in 2018, has since 2017 owned and operated the Mei Wah Beer Room, one of the only remaining fixtures of Isleton’s Main Street.
Walton said Mei Wah brings in business from the Bay Area and has inspired others to consider opening businesses in Isleton. Multiple public commenters supported this, saying the beer room is the only reason they come to Isleton.
However, the grand jury report along with Councilmembers Aleida Suarez and Cara Pellegrini, as well as interim City Manager Jon Kennedy, said Walton’s business has used a dead end on F Street for outdoor seating without proper permitting.
The grand jury report said “Walton continues to use the entire street without a permit which is a violation of the City’s ordinances” and that this violates multiple city laws including those prohibiting preferential treatment to members of the council.
“We are being distracted by Mayor Walton’s constant hostility, back-channeling, undermining of city operations and public trust, lack of transparency and avoidance of accountability,” said Suarez, who brought the council restructuring of mayor and vice mayor roles up for discussion. “She’s improperly trying to push her own agenda by seeking special favor.”
The council, with Walton abstaining, voted against Walton’s appeal to overturn the permit denial.
Against Pellegrini’s own wishes — and after joining the 3-2 vote against herself to appoint former Vice Mayor David Kent as the new mayor — Pellegrini was appointed vice mayor.
Walton joined the council in 2018, two years before the encroachment permit for the beer garden was awarded, and her council term is set to end in November 2026.
Walton ‘very difficult’ to work with, city manager says
Suarez’s partner Ruby Fowler, who runs a coffee shop in Isleton, called Walton a “bad dog” and said she had “politicized business in Isleton” during Tuesday evening’s meeting. Walton covered her mouth with a piece of paper while laughing and also told Suarez to “dump more” after she began speaking.
Tempers flared among Walton, Suarez, Fowler and Pellegrini, devolving into an exchange that ended with Suarez saying to Walton: “you call us coffee b------” before Walton threatened to resign. Residents in attendance murmured “no” multiple times after the threat.
Suarez also publicly disclosed that she had given a personal loan to Walton to help open the business, which earned sighs from some of the roughly 40 residents in attendance. She later clarified that the loan had been paid off.
Kennedy, who got into multiple verbal altercations with Walton throughout the meeting, said the former mayor had been “very difficult” to work with since her permit was denied in June. He clarified that the investigation into Mei Wah began when the grand jury report was released, also in June.
While Walton issued a public apology to Kennedy early in the meeting, before her ousting or business were brought up, for saying “back off,” Walton said her true words actually “began with an F.”
The city’s financial director, Jessica Bigby, also said she believed city staff do not have a good relationship with Walton.
Both Kennedy and Suarez brought up Walton’s relationship with Don Cain, who Kennedy called a “fake journalist,” as another code of conduct violation. Kennedy said Walton was feeding misleading information including at least one confidential email to Cain, who runs a Facebook account called The Isleton Observer, to support her agenda.
Suarez said this misleading information has led to harassment of city staff and council members.
‘Let’s get through this’
Walton said she sent Cain information he could have obtained through the city otherwise and had never asked for any special favors regarding Mei Wah’s beer garden.
“Special treatment isn’t having over two months with no answer from staff or council on a part of my business that was open for five years,” Walton said.
Attendees were roughly split between supporting and antagonizing Walton. Scoffs could be heard at points on both sides and multiple audience members made loud, sometimes profane interjections at various assertions from Walton, Kennedy and Suarez.
Some, including Cain and Michelle Burke, who has been to nearly every City Council meeting over the last seven years, largely supported Walton, agreeing with her assertion that Kennedy consistently “gaslights” people. Kennedy, at multiple points, called both Cain and Burke fake attorneys and yelled at them to stop talking outside of public comment.
“I don’t want to ignore any of the things that any grand jury indictments have come down but let’s wrap it up. Reprimand her, take away the mayor’s seat, whatever,” said 38-year-old Sebastian Maldonado, who has lived in Isleton most of his life. “Is all this disruption really worth it?”
A majority of commenters begged for the council to come to a resolution and stop the infighting.
“Let’s get through this, let’s work on getting the city back on track,” said Mark Bettencourt, a former Isleton mayor. “(Walton’s permit) is kind of a minor problem compared to the $4.7 million we’re looking at right now.”
Beer garden permit granted, then lost
Walton’s encroachment permit was initially granted in 2020, after she had already been elected to city council, due to the need for outdoor seating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the grand jury report, Walton paid just over $200 for the permit, but the financial records are lost. A copy of the permit passed around by Walton during the meeting said it could be renewed every two years.
She began using the whole street for special events in 2021, which disrupted public access, according to the grand jury report. She said it wasn’t disruptive because what she called the “most affected neighbor” was supportive of the events. Walton’s second permit was given in 2023 and expired in June.
The grand jury also found that despite a permit request to use the full street 50 days a year not being granted by the city, Walton had been doing so anyways.
To try to help keep the beer garden around, Kennedy said he gave Walton ideas to make her business permit-eligible, including suggesting a hot dog menu to make it a qualifying restaurant that could get an encroachment permit. However, that would mean it would have to compete with other Isleton restaurants for customers and that pets could not enter Mei Wah, both important items for Walton.
While the two argued over the definition of a restaurant, Kennedy said a letter from the Sacramento Environmental Health Division classified Mei Wah as a bar.
During later discussion on Walton’s appeal to grant her permit for the beer garden, all four other council members expressed their support for Mei Wah as a business but said they could not legally fast-track an ordinance specifically for the bar.
Pellegrini said the council and individual council members could be found liable if Walton is found to have received preferential treatment, a sentiment the city attorney shared. She also said ordinances involving encroachment permits would be discussed when the council reviews ordinances broadly.
“Regardless of what you might think of any of us, it pains us all to be in this position,” said Pellegrini, who frequents Mei Wah. “We have zero desire to do anything that could be perceived or cause any harm to anyone else. But I, at the end of the day, don’t want to do anything that will harm myself.”
In response to multiple public comments saying the council should make an exception or fast-track a fix for Mei Wah, Suarez said: “Everybody sends people down there. It’s a fantastic space. But you’re asking us to bend, bend what? Bend the law?”
Resigning ‘anti-democratic,’ ex-mayor says
While Kennedy acknowledged that fast-tracking a permit is legal for a citizen, he maintained that it is illegal to do so for a council member.
“Many business owners are Board of Supervisor members or council members, they just can’t break the law and get into conflict of interest. It’s that simple,” Kennedy said. “As long as she’s seated, there will never be an ordinance created for her.”
Outside of becoming a restaurant, Kennedy said Walton has two other options to get her permit: resign, or sell her business to a partner. He also said Walton probably regretted joining the council as it likely made getting this permit more difficult.
“I find (resigning) to be really anti-American and it really disturbs me that this has been put forward several times,” Walton said in an interview with The Bee after the meeting. “Believe me, it’s tempting to just let a lot of this go away, but I’m elected and I do value that.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM.
