Months of investigation into Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee’s role in a live performance of the TV show Wild ‘N Out concluded at City Council on Tuesday, with investigators finding Lee hadn’t made money from the event — but that his participation in votes on whether to investigate himself fell in a legal gray zone.
“There is no explicit statutory law applying facts like those present here,” Steven Miller, the government ethics lawyer who wrote the investigation report, told councilmembers. “We cannot say with any certainty that the vice mayor was legally required to recuse himself.”
Miller added: “But … we think that the vice mayor should have recused himself.”
The public got its first glimpse of the findings of the nearly five-month investigation Thursday, when the city published a council agenda containing a three-page summary of the inquiry.
In August, council narrowly voted to hire outside investigators to find out whether Lee had committed wrongdoing amid a decision by the city’s economic development department to recoup Wild ‘N Out for poor sales ahead of the May show.
From 2018 to 2019, the vice mayor appeared in 22 episodes of the game show, according to IMDB.
Suspicion about Lee’s conduct surrounding the event was initially raised by former Interim City Manager Steve Colangelo in early August, when he announced he’d been unaware of the $50,000 payment to Wild ‘N Out.
After investigators had finished the inquiry, council in December narrowly voted to expand it. The renewed investigation would examine whether Lee should’ve sat out the August vote to authorize the inquiry — as well as the December vote — to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
A promoter for the Wild ‘N Out event sent Stocktonia a statement he’d also shared with Lee, saying the vice mayor hadn’t profited from the performance. And as the investigation evolved, Lee maintained he’d committed no wrongdoing.
When it came to the event itself, investigators’ three-page summary affirmed Lee’s claims. Miller explained the findings in his presentation to councilmembers and the public Tuesday night.
“We found no violation of any state or city law arising out of the city’s involvement in the Wild ‘N Out live event, and the vice mayor’s onstage participation in that event,” Miller said.
He added that “the facts of our investigation reveal that the vice mayor had no financial interest in any contract associated with the event … and that he received no benefit of any kind resulting from his city service.”
Yet investigators’ conclusions about whether Lee should’ve recused himself from the council votes that started, and later expanded, the inquiry were less clear-cut, Miller said.
The language of California’s landmark government ethics law, the Political Reform Act — which covers campaign spending, lobbying, conflicts of interest and more — suggests Lee shouldn’t have taken part in the votes, Miller said.
“We think that the vice mayor should have recused himself from the decision to authorize an investigation into his own conduct,” Miller said.
Generally, officials must recuse themselves from decisions that could financially impact them.
However, a case involving a situation identical to Lee’s has never made it to a courtroom, according to Miller. Therefore, he said it’s impossible to know how a judge would rule on the question.
Still, recusing himself would’ve been a simple way for Lee to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to Miller.
“Especially given the factual uncertainties that exist at the outset of any investigation, we think that the standard could easily have been met here,” he said.
After Miller spoke, Lee thanked him for his “very clear and unbiased findings.”
“Did I violate any law?” Lee asked Miller.
The investigator said, “I believe the Political Reform Act required you — and the common law conflict-of-interest doctrine, both of which are laws — called for your recusal from the matter to hire an investigator into your own conduct.”
Lee also made a motion for council to deem Miller’s full report, of which the three-page summary represented only a slice, open to the public.
The council voted 6-1 to waive the confidentiality of the document, with only Mayor Christina Fugazi voting “no.”
The vice mayor then asked Miller why investigators hadn’t found that Councilmember Michele Padilla, who had also attended the Wild ‘N Out performance, should have recused herself.
Miller based his decision on a careful watching of the Dec. 9 council meeting, he said.
“It was very clear to me that the focus was on you, Vice Mayor Lee, and that you knew that you were authorizing an investigation into yourself,” Miller said. “We do not think that Councilmember Padilla would’ve had the same assurance.”
Several members of the public, including some staunch supporters of Lee, repeated longstanding criticisms of the investigation during the council meeting’s public comment period.
Yolanda Amen — president of the nonprofit Mata’irea Polynesian Culture Preservation, according to her LinkedIn, and a supporter of Lee — claimed the investigation had cost about a third of a dollar per taxpayer.
“I would … like to formally request that 28 cents be refunded to every Stockton household,” she said.
For now, it seems like the Wild ‘N Out investigation is in the rearview mirror.
By deadline, Stockton’s acting city attorney didn’t respond to a question about whether the city will report the findings of the inquiry to investigative agencies or file a lawsuit.
In August, Lee demanded $25,000 from the city over the Wild ‘N Out claims, saying they’d hurt his reputation and caused distress. He didn’t immediately respond to a question about the status of the matter.
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