At the Chula Vista Board of Ethics meeting on April 20, Council member Jill Galvez submitted evidence to counter an ethics complaint filed against her on Jan. 11 by Chula Vista resident Delia Dominguez Cervantes.
Cervantes stated that on Jan. 6, Galvez misused city resources for personal gain fostering mistrust in city government. On Jan 8, Galvez sent another newsletter that also included links to her mayoral candidate page. Both newsletters came from Galvez’s official city email jmgalvez@chulavistaca.gov, according to the complaint.
“This was politically motivated, and I have done everything by the book,” said Galvez in a phone interview.
In a letter of response to the BOE, Galvez said that for the past three years, she has sent a monthly newsletter “with valuable information to my constituents,” with a total of 39 email newsletters. She said the return address for those regular communications is Jmgalvez@chulavista.gov, and all replies are public record and can be found on the city’s server. She stated as an elected official she is allowed to communicate with her constituents via email.
Galvez stated that all emails after March 13, 2020 were sent from her MailChimp free email platform, along with a link to her email campaign archive.
Galvez stated in campaign marketing for mayor, she opened a campaign committee, that the California Fair Political Practices Commission requires all communications contain the disclosure, “Paid for by (Committee Name) FPPC ID (#).” The return address for her campaign is Jill@JillGalvez.com, and that all replies to campaign emails are hosted on Gmail, and that her website is managed by Wix.com.
“On January 8th, I sent a mass email to a database of proprietary voter email addresses managed by Political Data Inc. I paid for the mailing with my campaign account. There was a campaign disclosure of “Jill Galvez for Mayor 2022 FPPC ID 1440411” on the bottom of the email. The return address was Jill@JillGalvez.com, not the city’s server. None of my city council emails were imported into the proprietary PDI database of voters in Chula Vista, or vice versa,” she stated in her rebuttal.
Galvez provided screenshots of her receipts from PDI, one from Jan. 8 for $185.82, and another from Jan. 8 for $175.56.
One of the emails in question “Trash Strike Update,” Galvez provided the email which displayed that the message was paid for by “Jill Galvez for Mayor 2022.”
“Finally, I obtained both website and verbal advice from the FPPC about emails and email disclosures for candidates who are also public servants. There are different rules for both, and I have kept and maintained a distinct wall between both campaign and day-to-day activities.” Galvez stated in her response to the BOE. “I am happy to provide administrator access to my Wix website, my PDI political database, and/or my Gmail account to verify any of the information contained above in this e-mail.”
After looking at the evidence, the BOE prima facie meeting on April 20, the committee asked for IT to provide the original newsletters in question, and what servers were used in sending the newsletters to determine if city resources were used for non-city activities. The next step is a probable cause hearing scheduled for May 12, where both Cervantes and Galvez may testify.
CLARIFICATIONS: A previous version of this story reported that “Galvez stated that all emails after March 13 were sent from her MailChimp free email platform, along with a link to her email campaign archive.” Those emails were sent after March 13, 2020.
Because of a typo, Councilwoman Jill Galvez’s email was incorrectly published. The correct email is: Jmgalvez@chulavistaca.gov.
