The Chula Vista Districting Commission bylaws state that commissioners cannot meet with City Council members or their aides to discuss the districting process.
But weeks before the final map was drawn and approved by the commission, Chairman Jerome Torres approached Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Miesen’s aide, Jason Paguio, to talk about the Asian Pacific American Cultural Economic Corridor, according to Torres’s communications logs.
Article III of the bylaws state: “Commissioners shall not communicate outside of a public meeting with the mayor or any other member of the Chula Vista City Council, or their representatives, or others who may have a direct stake in the outcome of the districting process regarding districting matters.”
Torres said he was aware of the rule but did not view his conversation with Paguio at a South County Economic Development Council meeting as a violation because he spoke with Paguio as an individual, not as the councilman’s representative.
“Even though it’s prohibited by our bylaws that we should be talking to the City Council or their representatives, what he and I had a talk about was nothing related to the map,” Torres said.
Paguio said he was at the monthly SCEDC meeting as a business owner not as Miesen’s aide.
Torres said he approached Paguio to inquire if he would ask Filipino community leaders to meet with the Neighborhood Unity Coalition to sort out their differences over the APACE corridor.
The Neighborhood Unity Coalition is made up of labor and other community outreach groups.
Prior to having the brief conversation with Paguio, Torres had sent a LinkedIn message that morning asking Paguio to give him a call because “I’d like to pick your brain on the districting process,” he wrote.
Torres said their conversation did not last longer than five minutes and insisted that Paguio was not lobbying on behalf of Miesen.
Paguio said he was aware of the bylaw prohibiting communication between commissioners and council representatives so he asked Debra Discar-Espe, a board member with the Asian Pacific American Coalition who was also at the meeting, to join the conversation.
“I thought it was unconventional that he would solicit input from me,” Paguio said.
“Our conversation was more like: is there a way the Filipino community and the Neighborhood Unity Coalition can come together and agree on a map.”
Torres said he did not log his conversation with Discar-Espe because he could not remember her name.
City Attorney Glen Googins said that without speaking to Torres or Paguio he could not determine if the commission’s bylaws had been violated. He said his office would look into the matter only if the commission requested an investigation.
Googins added that any consequence wouldn’t affect the recommended map, which on July 14 the Chula Vista City Council will vote on.
Torres said the Asian Pacific Islander community and the Neighborhood Unity Coalition where once in agreement over the corridor but grew divided over time.
Torres said he wanted both groups to work out their differences.
“The dishonest thing would have been for me not to report (the conversation with Paguio),” he said. “But rather I did the honest and transparent thing by reporting it.”
Miesen, who sits on the board of directors of the SCEDC, said he did not know Paguio attended that May 5 meeting and was not briefed about Torres’s conversation with Paguio.
“If he went to the SCEDC meeting, he certainly didn’t go there with my instruction to go there as a representative for me,” Miesen said.
The councilman said Paguio is only a part-time aide and said for the most part Paguio only represents him at ribbon-cutting events or at meetings where Miesen is invited but can’t attend.
Miesen said Paguio is able to turn off when he is an aide, much like he can turn off when he isn’t a council member.
“It’s just like myself, there’s times when I go to a meeting, and I’m not coming as a council member, I’m coming as a division manager of Republic Services,” he said.
Districting Commissioner William Richter said he is the one who suggested to the commission to institute bylaws.
He said the bylaw stating that commissioners shouldn’t talk to council members or aides were instituted for transparency.
“The reason (for creating this bylaw) is because this commission from the very beginning was set up to be as non-partisan and transparent as possible,” he said.
Richter said bylaws state commissioners must log any substantive communication with someone or a community group who had a vested interest in the development of the map.
Richter said he would “feel uncomfortable” with speaking to a council representative about the districting process, even when they are not in their role as an aide.
“I don’t think you can remove your role as an aide to a council member,” he said.
Richter said there aren’t any consequences for a violation of the bylaws but hopes some sort of sanctions can be enforced when the next districting commission is created.
“In retrospect, I think there was a mistake in our part that there should always be consequences when there are rules,” he said. “This is something that maybe we can address with the next commission,” he said.
