Seaside City Council votes to investigate member’s sexual harassment claims

The Seaside City Council voted unanimously to hire an independent investigator to check into sexual harassment allegations made by Councilmember Kayla Jones.

Seaside City Hall was packed Thursday night as councilmembers deliberated on the issue. Jones herself was not present at the meeting.

“Today, she’s at home right now because she’s human and she’s nice and she’s a good person,” said Ryan Jones, the husband of Kayla Jones. “I don’t think it’s fair for her to have to sit through the inevitable vitriol that’s aimed towards her.”

His 24-year-old wife, the only woman on the council, is accusing some fellow members of sexual harassment. At the last council meeting, Jones said she could prove it.

“If anybody would like written documentation, if anybody would like dates that some of these things have occurred, I will happily provide them,” said Jones.

A totally separate investigation has already been requested into Jones’ spending, purchases made with city funds.

“This is a black eye. This is not a black eye borne by anything negative on the city. This is a black eye by an elected official that don’t care about it, got a credit card and thought she was in a candy store,” said Darryl Choates, a former Seaside city councilmember.

Still, some community members came out in support of Jones.

“The timing of this minor outrage is obviously done to try and implicate as some kind of wild spender and seems to be a thinly-veiled political attack during an election,” said one woman.

Jones is running for the mayor’s seat this November. She says she is a third-generation Seaside resident.

“In her campaign, she stated that she’s struggling just like us,” said another woman of Jones during public comment. “But do we really want someone to run our city that is struggling and abusing taxpayers’ money to make her ends meet?”