Stockton City Council members will consider new guidelines Monday aimed at revealing to the public the political consultants behind local candidates’ campaigns.
Scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday at City Hall, the discussion comes a month after the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury highlighted Stockton’s failure to respond adequately to recommendations it made following multiple investigations over the past two years.
One of those recommendations was a local transparency law for political consultants.
The advice was part of the civil grand jury’s 2024 investigation, during which the jury said it received multiple complaints from city employees that “a threatening work environment has been created by the ongoing bullying and intimidation from individuals connected to” 209 Times.
209 Times is a social media page run by political consultant Motecuzoma Sanchez, who is the current chair of Stockton’s city council salary setting commission. The intimidation happened through relentless emails, messages, phone calls and comments during public meetings, in addition to online posts, the civil grand jury claimed. Sanchez has dismissed the report as “not legitimate.”
The civil grand jury recommended that City Council members stop associating with people linked to 209 Times.
In January 2024, District 2 Councilmember Mariela Ponce thanked Sanchez in her swearing-in speech. In March, Mayor Christina Fugazi awarded Sanchez a city proclamation.
The civil grand jury urged Stockton to pass a law that would make the relationships between candidates and consultants transparent to the public, pointing to a San Francisco law as a model.
In summer 2024, the City Council told the civil grand jury new rules were in the works, according to its letter to the grand jury at the time.
But that fall, the proposal effectively died in the City Council’s legislation committee, whose members cited financial constraints, a report linked to Monday’s agenda said.
District 3 Councilmember Michael Blower led the committee at the time, and then-councilmembers Susan Lenz and Kimberly Warmsley, who represented districts 4 and 6, were members.
In May, Mario Enriquez, who represents District 4 and now leads the committee, revived the discussion, the report said. On Monday, the committee will discuss the proposed new guidelines. It now includes District 1 Councilmember Michele Padilla, as well as Blower.
According to a draft, the change would establish “procedures to create and maintain a voluntary registry for political consultants and campaign managers.”
To remain in “good standing,” political consultants and campaign managers would have to disclose a list of their clients that are running for city office, the draft says. The registry would be publicly visible on the city’s website.
Political consultants and campaign managers would also have to attend an orientation covering prohibitions on political activity at City Hall, state campaign ethics laws, and other topics.
Unlike the San Francisco law the civil grand jury recommended as a model, Stockton’s proposed policy would be voluntary, the draft says.
San Francisco’s law makes it “unlawful for any campaign consultant to provide campaign consulting services” without following the transparency rules and registering with the city’s ethics commission.
Ignoring the rules can result in the city cancelling the consultant’s registration, and in civil and criminal penalties, the law says.
Under Stockton’s proposed guidelines, residents would be able to report unregistered consultants to the city, and the leader of the legislation committee could decide to review the report at a committee meeting.
Whether the committee sends the guidelines to the full council for a vote remains to be seen Monday.
Juneteenth Flag
At the same meeting, the committee will also discuss a resolution that would have the Juneteenth Flag raised at City Hall each year.
The June 19 holiday marks the day emancipation was enforced in Texas, the last place in the country where white residents had continued enslaving Black Americans even after the Emancipation Proclamation.
The committee is also scheduled to hold a general discussion on city laws regulating campaign signs, in anticipation of possible changes that were not spelled out in Monday’s agenda.