Chula Vista City Attorney candidate Attorney Marco Verdugo held a press conference in the Chula Vista City Council courtyard Monday, proposing a three-point comprehensive Anti-Corruption Action Plan to fight corruption and hold City Hall accountable. The proposal comes on the heels of the San Diego District Attorney’s Office filing seven felony charges against Chula Vista City Councilwoman Andrea Cardenas and her brother Jesus, a political consultant.
Verdugo said that along with the charges against the council member, in September, Andres Camberos, the owner of Grasshopper Dispensary, the first commercial cannabis dispensary was charged with 11 felony accounts, including wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
“Him, being a cannabis licensee, and him being indicted for fraud, and the issues it has caused for the city, I previously called for the City to take action,” he said. “The owner of Grasshopper has been indicted for fraud along with his sister, who was previously convicted. It looks like they finally have taken action recently.”
The San Diego Union Tribune reported last week that Chula Vista City Manager Kachadoorian advised the ownership group, Vista Holding Co. LLC, that it would lose its license to operate Grasshopper if Camberos remains a partner in the company, giving the company 60 days to file a response to the notice.
Verdugo’s three-point plan is to reinforce the City’s system of checks and balances by convening legal experts to recommend revisions to the City Charter, including granting the City the authority to investigate and recommend the suspension of council members’ authority by a four-fifths super majority when there is evidence of corruption or malfeasance in office, with a clawback provision that requires them to pay back their salary during their suspension if they are convicted of a felony, and to establish a transparent process for the City’s actions, ensuring due process and protecting against political misuse of power.
Verdugo said suspending a council member by revising the City Charter is legally sound.
“As long as we do it under a legal mechanism in the City Charter, the city can have the ability to suspend a council member,” he said. “The City of Los Angeles has a provision to that effect, and they have used it. What we do not want to do is to have somebody collect payment and then is later indicted and convicted. At that point, if they were convicted, what we are proposing is a provision that would allow the City to clawback those funds that were paid to the council member while they were suspended.”
Verdugo said that if a council member is suspended before a conviction, they would be suspended with pay, but unable to have a voice or vote at City Hall during the suspension.
The second point in Verdugo’s plan is to close campaign finance loopholes in City ethics laws.
“Chula Vista is infamous for its campaign finance loopholes, most notably the unlimited timeframe of which candidates are allowed to carry debt after the election,” he said.
Verdugo wants to clearly define “extension of credit” to clarify that any debt accrued becomes an in-kind contribution after a certain length of time and set in stone that that length of time be six months after the calendar year in which the election was held, bringing Chula Vista in line with other jurisdictions.
Verdugo’s third point in his plan is to establish an independent auditor and he would support the creation of an independent auditor’s office, tasked with continuous and random audits of city departments to ensure transparency and accountability, and mandate regular public reports from the independent auditor to keep citizens informed and engaged in the city’s financial health.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he said, adding that it is important to combat corruption before it occurs and making good government protocols a top priority. “The residents of Chula Vista deserve a government that operates with the highest standards of integrity and transparency. My plan is a commitment to restoring faith in our city’s governance and ensuring that Chula Vista is a model for ethical leadership.”
