Lemoore Councilmember Holly Blair has history of conflict with city council

Friday, June 7, 2019
Lemoore Councilmember bails out of jail following arrest
Before Holly Blair left jail, her husband, visibly shaken, told Action News he loved her and was looking forward to her coming home.

Before Lemoore City Councilmember Holly Blair bailed out of jail Thursday, Action News stopped by her home, where her husband, visibly shaken up, answered the door.

"I just want to say that I love Holly and I miss her and I look forward to her getting home," Paul Blair said.

Holly Blair, surrounded by police officers at one of the city's busiest intersections, ignored all commands to get out of her SUV Wednesday afternoon, after a brief chase that started with a bizarre incident at police headquarters minutes before.

RELATED: Lemoore councilmember leads police on wild chase after nearly running down officers, bystanders

As police and supporters were getting ready for a procession in the back parking lot, they say Blair sped into the lot, nearly hitting several people and almost crashing and into a patrol car.

Her son was also in her car.

"I am very thankful that no one was injured and I'm really proud of how the police department handled this," said former Lemoore Mayor Ray Madrigal. "She's been at odds with them and has said some really inappropriate and bad things about the police department, about Chief Smith, about our city manager. Thankfully they didn't let their emotions get the best of them. They handled it very appropriately-deescalated a situation that could have gone very wrong."

In response to what they called public statements that harmed the city and endangered public safety, city leaders filed for a temporary restraining order against Blair earlier this year, but the legal battle was settled in April, with Blair agreeing to stop making negative comments about specific city employees.

Since then, Blair has missed multiple city council meetings.

Outside of her duties as a Councilmember, Blair is also an English teacher at West Hills College.

"The safety of students and the community is a top priority of the West Hills Community College District" a college official said. "We are monitoring the situation with the individual very closely and cooperating with investigators."

The Kings County District Attorney's Office has not filed charges against Blair yet.

Lemoore's City Manager says he has directed the city attorney to take another look at a restraining order against her.

She's been in office since December of 2016.

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