It’s the corruption, stupid

At stake in Stockton’s upcoming elections is whether the grifters accused of plundering Stockton Unified and triggering an FBI investigation will win a majority on the Stockton City Council.  

But you wouldn’t know it from most candidate forums, campaign ads, or news coverage. The word “corruption” is rarely uttered, rarely treated as an important issue, though corruption is the biggest threat to Stockton government at present.

“Stockton has been plagued by the twin demons of incompetence and corruption,” mayoral candidate Dan Wright, alone for months the only candidate to discuss the elephant in the room, said at a recent forum.

Wright elaborated on the weird lack of attention to the issue: “If I don’t know who was responsible for the Stockton Unified corruption — and the district lost over $3 million — then some of them may be connected to the City of Stockton positions or may be themselves running for positions in the city of Stockton.”

Of course they are. And almost nobody’s informing the public. But if there are corrupt elements in politics, they must be called out.

Mayor Kevin Lincoln has the bully pulpit, but he has not said
Word One. It appears he saw the role the 209 Times misinformation website played in the downfall of previous Mayor Michael Tubbs and decided to go along to get along. 

The vaunted FBI hasn’t popped anybody or issued any report. Ditto the San Joaquin County District Attorney, Ron Freitas, who announced his office would investigate. And, Mr. Freitas?

Alleging fiscal misdeeds, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, the only agency to take action, raided the house of the one apparently honest Stockton Unified board member, Angel Ann Flores. 

Deputies seized her records, humiliating her, but the D.A. has filed no charges. It’s unclear if the Sheriff put Flores through the wringer because he thinks she’s dirty or because he thinks she’s honest. 

Local media hasn’t distinguished itself, either. Hey, colleagues, the back-room boys are trying to take over the Stockton government. Do you think you might like to ask candidates about it?

For journos who said no, a question: Why did you get into this business?

I attended the League of Women Voters candidate forums. Candidates were asked about crime. About homelessness. About infrastructure — potholes — but nothing about the threat to city government.

It’s as if Stockton residents are living in the alternate reality of a science fiction novel. 

Not all, thankfully: A bipartisan roster of candidates for San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and Stockton City Council released a principled mailer “in opposition to the 209 Times and will take a stand against its corruption.”

Mayoral Candidate Jesus Andrade released a video spot denouncing “deceptive media, like the 209 Times.” “Stockton needs a mayor who will choose principle over politics and refuse to capitulate to self-serving special interests,” he said in a statement.

Council candidate Mario Enriquez: “I want to share that I’m also against 209 Times … and ready to call out corruption.”

Thanks to these candidates, among others. Better late than never.

If any type of unscrupulous candidates win a majority, this is how I see it playing out: 

The first thing they’ll do is fire honest, competent City Manager Harry Black. They’ll replace him with an apparent co-conspirator like they did at Stockton Unified. Then they’ll plunder the treasury. 

They’ll bid-rig for kickbacks. They’ll take a cut off grant money. They’ll elbow competent and honest city employees out of good-paying jobs and replace them with incompetent relatives and cronies. They’ll move the public information authority to the mayor’s office, and you’ll never get a straight answer out of them again, unless it serves their purposes. They won’t comply with California Public Records Act requests. They won’t grant interviews to journalists who ask tough questions. 

Meanwhile, millions of dollars will disappear from this already cash-strapped city. Governance will be a travesty. Potholes will take on lunar dimensions.

A growing number of people see the site for what it is: an unscrupulous political operation that appears to trade money and good press for cooperation, turns a blind eye to their clients’ misdeeds, and shamelessly smears their opponents. 

It’s about money, power, and jobs. Here’s an example involving their wholehearted stooge on the council, Michele Padilla. When Padilla took office, she (tearfully!) thanked her “management team” of Motecuzoma Sanchez and Frank Gayaldo, the two main characters behind the 209 Times. 

Subsequently, Padilla appointed Sanchez, who had run for Stockton office but was repeatedly rejected by voters, to the Charter Review Advisory Commission. Padilla helped one of the worst actors in Stockton politics build his resume.

But that’s how they roll: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. What the public needs is irrelevant. 

Which brings us to mayoral candidates. The 209 Times has shown support in the past for two: Tom Patti and Christina Fugazi. That alone raises serious questions about the candidates’ agenda and associates. 

But each has additional drawbacks, in my opinion.

Patti, a two-term San Joaquin County Supervisor, may be the frontrunner. He gets earned media for being in office thus name recognition, has a sizable war chest, and is campaigning aggressively.

But Patti is a poor leader. “One of the worst I’ve ever seen, and you have to remember I served for quite a while with Anthony Silva,” the disgraced former Stockton mayor, said Kathy Miller, who served two terms with Patti on the board of supes.

Patti seldom gets his ideas off the ground, Miller said, because his shortcomings cost him needed votes. 

“You have to, with your fellow electeds, be realistic about including them in the process with you. Tom doesn’t do that.”

As the county developed a housing-first shelter policy to address homelessness, Patti championed a showboat megashelter. It went nowhere.

Patti also appears to believe in Old School cronyism. One example (among numerous ones) involved county redistricting. Patti recommended a team who could lead the effort for around $300,000. Only after the board hired them did it come to light that the team featured Patti’s Sacramento political consultant, Tab Berg, and a campaign donor. 

The board rescinded the contract. County staff then did the job for around $40,000.

“It isn’t that he doesn’t get that you shouldn’t be bringing projects that benefit your friends, families, and acquaintances,” Miller said. “He thinks it’s completely fine.”

Patti also has a hostile streak. “He insults people publicly if you don’t agree with him. He has on occasion stooped to name calling,” Miller

A nonstop feuder, Patti filed numerous ethics complaints against board enemies and associates. The resulting county investigations cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. None proved true.

But an investigation into him found he bullied a female staffer so badly that the board censured him.

Patti alluded to his combative side at a recent candidates forum: “Sometimes I ruffle a few feathers, but I get things done.”

He’ll find it harder to get things done as Stockton’s mayor. On the five-person Board of Supervisors he needs to muster only a 3-person majority. On the 7-person council he would need four votes. His record suggests he’ll feud with opponents, not win them over.

Christina Fugazi, having served on the Planning Commission and City Council, is a seasoned leader as well. She appears truly committed to championing the under-represented. 

“I am a public school educator,” she said at a forum. “I don’t pick and choose who I teach.” As a politician, “I don’t pick and choose who I serve,” she boasted.

Her other drawback involves two things a mayor needs to be effective: a council majority and a constructive relationship with the city manager. A populist, Fugazi seems rational enough to command a council majority sometimes, though outlier enough to alienate it at others; but she seems never to have met a city manager she can support (though she spoke favorably of Harry Black at the most recent forum and the Stocktonia debate). With populist cynicism toward the establishment, she seems to think them all dictatorial and indifferent to the masses. City managers return the disapproval.

The primary question about both candidates, however, remains what, if anything, they promised the 209 Times people in exchange for support.

If you find that question unsettling, demand an answer. Better still, select from the other mayoral candidates, Jesus Andrade, Jessica Velez, Shakeel Ahmad, and Dan Wright. They offer a choice between politicos with no toxic affiliations.

Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com.

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