Chula Vista City Council Candidate Jason Paguio’s ballot description for Chula Vista’s Nov. 8 special election will list him as a small business owner after a challenge to his ballot designation.
Jessica Hayes, vice chair for South Area of San Diego County Democratic Party, on Aug. 9 challenged Paguio’s ballot designation as a small businessman/educator, specifically the use of the word “educator.” Hayes said she submitted the challenge as an individual, not as a representative of the San Diego County Democratic Party.
In her challenge, Hayes argued that Paguio cannot justify his title as an educator because the designation is not an accurate description of his current principal profession, vocation or occupation.
She said Paguio does not conform to California Education Code 44013, which states that an educator means a certified person holding a valid California teaching credential or a valid California services credential issued by the commission who is employed by a local education agency or by a special education local planning area and who is not employed as an independent contractor or consultant.
Having Paguio listed, as an educator would violate both California election laws and education codes, she said.
“I won’t say that he was intentionally trying to do that [mislead voters],” she said. “I will say I challenged it because it is illegal to misinform the voters.”
California Election Code 13107 (a) (3) states that a candidate may use “no more than three words designating either the current principal professions, violations, or occupations of the candidate, or the principal professions, vocations or occupations of the candidate during the calendar year immediately preceding the filing of nomination documents.”
“He simply doesn’t qualify as an educator,” she said.
Secretary of State regulations allows the city clerk to request additional supporting documentation or other evidence to support a proposed designation.
City Clerk Donna Norris provided Paguio the opportunity to submit any evidence further showing that he is an educator, but she said he just opted to pick one of the alternate ballot designation he submitted in March of a “small business owner,” removing the word “educator.” The ballot for the November election will now identify Paguio as a “small business owner.”
Norris said she still does not know whether or not Paguio is an educator but that the term small business owner satisfies the challenge.
Paguio, who is running for District 3 Southeast Chula Vista, said he did not want to provide additional proof that he is a teacher because he is focused on moving his campaign forward.
“We decided that the other side wanted to create a distraction and we decided to go a different route,” he said.
Paguio, 30, said he was the assistant band director at Eastlake High School from 2007 to 2013.
Sweetwater Union High School District spokesman Manny Rubio confirmed that Paguio was a part-time employee of the district “a few years ago,” but said Paguio no longer works for the district. Rubio said Paguio worked in the music department at one of the school’s in the district but was unsure of his capacity.
Although he is no longer in a classroom, Paguio said he gives private lessons, general instruction and sometimes, he said, a school would hire him to clinician a band.
“I still teach today,” he said. “I teach drum majoring, which is music, not just in Southern California but sometimes all over the world. I’m hired as a clinician.”
Paguio said he has taught music throughout the United States, Canada, Scotland, South Africa, Japan and Northern Ireland.
Paguio said he does not hold a California teacher’s credential but he said he does not need one to teach at school districts.
“Similarly to other arts teachers in the Sweetwater Union High School District, I was hired as an hourly teacher to teach music.”
As evidence that Paguio is not an educator, Hayes submitted to the city clerk Paguio’s resume, Facebook Page, and LinkedIn account.
She claimed in the challenge that Paguio’s role, as a principal officer at the Parade Band Foundation, Inc. does not justify educator as a principal profession or occupation.
In the challenge, Hayes also argued that the music/drum major teacher list attached to his ballot designation worksheet places Paguio’s putative education involvement in the past.
Lastly she said the descriptions in Paguio’s ballot designation worksheet are at odds with descriptions on the LinkedIn, account.
She says on LinkedIn Paguio states that he is “formerly a music teacher: and that on LinkedIn, Paguio says his involvement with the Sweetwater School District as a “music educator, ended in 2014.
Paguio’s opponent, former Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla received the Democratic Endorsement. Hayes said despite supporting Padilla, her challenge is not political.
“It’s my job to campaign against the opponent of my candidate,” she said. “But when it comes to misleading people that is a different animal. This is not politics, it is about basic honesty.”
Hayes said she does not challenge ballot designations often, only when they are egregious. The last time Hayes challenged someone’s ballot designation came in 2014 when she challenged the ballot designation of South Bay Irrigation Board Member Terry Thomas in which she listed herself as a microbiologist. That challenge went unsuccessful.
Hayes said she is pleased to know that the November ballot will accurately describe Paguio.
“What I’m happy about is that the voters (in Chula Vista) will no longer be mislead,” she said.
Hayes recently challenged the ballot designation of South Bay Irrigation board member Terry Thomas in which she listed herself as a microbiologist when she ran in 2014. Hayes said Thomas has not worked in the microbiology field in 20-years. That challenge was unsuccessful.
