After Molano concluded his speech, Weaver challenged him to either present evidence of bribery to the district attorney, or to stop publicly accusing the council of improprieties.
When Molano walked back up to the podium to respond, Weaver told him he'd had his allotted comment time and called up the police officers and threatened to have him removed from Council Chambers.
Molano, who after a few seconds' hesitation returned to his seat, said he believed he had the right to respond to Weaver's challenge.
"The mayor's comments were outside the scope of the agenda item being considered," Molano said.
"I was not threatening anyone and he made use of city police to infringe on my right to speak."
City law allows public speakers up to five minutes to comment on agenda items, City Atty. Scott Howard said.
"He was given an opportunity to speak, and under the Brown Act a councilman has a chance to make a brief statement in response to what the person has said, or even something they have said earlier," said Howard, who had not yet seen the claim, which was filed with the city clerk's office.
"It does not give Mr. Molano a right to get back up and speak. He is at that point challenging the mayor's authority and being disruptive."
Howard added that under Molano's theory, any time a council member responds to a speaker, it would be that person's free-speech right to make a rebuttal argument.
"But then where does that stop?" asked Howard, who dismissed Molano's claim as without merit based on the free-speech argument. "He had his five minutes, he exercised his rights and he is certainly welcome to come back next week and speak again."
Weaver said he was not only responding to Molano's comments on Tuesday, but also to a statement Molano made in a letter to the editor in the Glendale News-Press in which he accused the council of corruption and urged for the recall of all council members.
"I urged him to present his evidence of this to the district attorney so we could all be prosecuted," said Weaver, who noted that the five minutes the city gives public speakers surpasses the three-minute average of many other cities.
"He got back up, and I told him he was out of order. I have the right to do that, under the law, as I have a right to respond to any comments by the speakers."
The city clerk's office has 30 days to consider the claim and to respond to it.
