Tracy Planning Commissioner Marc Shishido resigned Tuesday, before a City Council meeting where his behavior as a commissioner was on the agenda for discussion.

But the council might still refer a complaint of “influence peddling” against Shishido to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, or to the state Fair Political Practices Commission, when the topic returns at the next council meeting.

Councilman Mike Maciel wanted the council to vote Tuesday to ask the district attorney and FPPC to investigate the complaint, but Mayor Brent Ives objected.

Ives said the matter was listed on the public agenda as a “discussion” item, and the council was therefore barred from voting on it by open-meeting laws.

“I’m not going to entertain a motion tonight,” Ives said.

Ives seemed to argue that, because Shishido resigned and was no longer a planning commissioner, the issue was behind the city, though he agreed the council could take a look at its policies “to make sure our house in is order.”

Councilwoman Evelyn Tolbert said Shishido’s resignation “was exactly what was needed, and I’m glad it came through.”

On Jan. 21, the city received a letter from an attorney representing a man who claims Shishido offered to help find a spot in Tracy for a marijuana dispensary in exchange for a $25,000 consulting fee.

Point Richmond attorney Kathleen McKinley told City Manager Leon Churchill and City Attorney Dan Sodergren in the letter that Shishido had asked Keith Stephenson of Oakland’s Purple Heart Patient Center Inc. to make out a $7,500 check to Shishido’s wife, Natalie Shishido, as a partial payment after a contract was signed Nov. 10.

McKinley said Stephenson soon changed his mind and asked for his money back, but it has yet to be returned.

McKinley said the commissioner flashed his “city of Tracy” business card early in the negotiations, and the contract spells out that Shishido would not vote on the matter or try to sway city officials in his consulting work.

But McKinley, a former planning commissioner herself, said the arrangement “raises the suspicion of influence peddling.”

Shishido was absent from Tuesday’s council meeting, but in a brief interview last week, he said it was Stephenson who first reached out to him.

Councilman Steve Abercrombie said he too spoke with the commissioner, who “said he wanted something done, because he didn’t want this hanging over his head.”

Abercrombie added that people will assume that “it must be true. He resigned. That’s just not fair to Mr. Shishido.”

Maciel, who worked for internal investigations during his career in the police department, emphasized that he would not assume the allegations were true.

Nonetheless, he thought they needed to be investigated, “to ensure the integrity of city government. … We owe that to the community.”