Councilmember Michele Padilla and a Stockton mayor’s office staffer are being investigated for allegedly planning to use public funds to pay the high school tuition of the staffer’s daughter.
Investigators are probing the possible forgery of city officials’ signatures approving the release of $8,000 from Padilla’s discretionary fund to pay the high school tuition for the daughter of Mayor Kevin Lincoln’s administrative assistant, Erika Williams.
The fraud may have come to light when Padilla applied to withdraw $8,000 from her discretionary fund. Each council member is allotted $15,000 (the mayor $60,000) to spend on a “community benefit.” Council members’ applications for these funds must be approved by the city manager’s office, and sometimes the city attorney.
Padilla’s request was not approved. Discretionary money may not be spent on an individual’s bills — and it is hard to imagine how Padilla ever thought it could be.
A move to censure Padilla for allegedly misusing her discretionary funds in a prior instance is already moving ahead. This would make a sensible person extra careful. Instead, Padilla has become a one-woman case against entrusting council members with discretionary funds.
At roughly the same time as Padilla requested the money, Williams was assuring St. Mary’s High School in emails obtained by Stocktonia that Padilla would provide thousands towards Williams’ tuition bill.
At first, St. Mary’s accepted Williams’ pledge. But as months passed, the school became uncertain.
“We are working very hard to meet you in the middle to allow (your daughter) to participate in graduation but we still have not rec’d the commitment letter that you said we would receive on Tuesday,” the school wrote Williams on May 17. “We must receive it by the end of the day in order to avoid this.”
Williams replied, “Apologies for the delay she (Padilla) had to request the submittal form from administrative services. Here is what she sent me, which is the check request she submitted to the city so that they could process the check. It shows approval signatures (italics mine).”
How approval signatures got on a document when no approval was given is an open question.
Several months lapsed but apparently no payment was made. In August, St. Mary’s reached out to Padilla to ask if she intended to pay all or part of the tuition.
Padilla replied on Aug. 29.
“At this time I can not (sic) approve the request,” wrote the council member, who implied she would if she could. “I am waiting for accounting from the City. Please reach out in 2 weeks.”
The following day St. Mary’s replied with more questions. The tone suggested they smelled a rat.
“Thank you for your response. To help us better understand the city payment process, can you please answer the following?
1. “Did you author the attached letter on your district city letterhead and provide a copy to Erika Williams?
2. “Is the check request copy that was provided to us by Erika Williams the standard city check request form?
3. “There is an approval number on that check request. Where does that approval number come from? And who signed this check request?”
Good questions. Padilla’s response, if any, is not included in the emails obtained by Stocktonia. Nor did the emails include any communications from city staff.
I filed a California Public Records Act request for relevant documents. The city replied that it needs extra time to sort out the documents that are public from the ones that are confidential because of attorney-client privilege.
Padilla, emailed a list of questions, answered none.
Williams could not be reached for comment. According to the mayor’s website, the Stockton-born Williams was appointed executive assistant to Lincoln in August 2022. “She assists the mayor in providing administrative support, scheduling, and constituent correspondence,” the website says.
It adds that Williams is “a proud mother of three” and “is excited to join Mayor Lincoln’s team and is looking forward to making a positive impact within her city and for the people of Stockton.”
The scandal comes at a bad time not only for Padilla, given her possible censure, but for Mayor Lincoln, who is running for Congress against 9th District incumbent Josh Harder.
The mayor was quick to distance himself.
“The City of Stockton takes all allegations seriously,” he said in a statement. “I fully support all processes the city is using to address these allegations.”
He would not say whether Williams has been placed on leave. “The City does not comment on personnel matters,” Lincoln wrote. Williams, a regular at council meetings, was absent from the last meeting, Sept. 17.
The ‘processes’ the mayor alludes to are an in-house investigation followed by a police investigation.
Police declined to answer questions.
“At this point we’re just going to decline to comment on the presence of an investigation,” said police spokesman Officer Omar Edah. “But we’ll respond to any request in accordance with the government code once those records become available.”
Sources close to the matter say the police report was forwarded to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office for review and possible charging.
As to what charges might be filed, Matthew Reynolds, dean of Humphreys University Drivon School of Law, said against Padilla, possibly none.
“Based on what you described it sounds like she tried to go through the proper channels. It just didn’t work,” Reynolds said.
The exception would be if Padilla were implicated in forgery in some way, Reynolds said.
Williams, for her part, is evidently in breach of contract with St. Mary’s. Legally, that is a civil matter. Or St. Mary’s may send the bill to collections. But were Williams involved in forgery she could face criminal fraud charges, Reynolds said.
Padilla has repeatedly stumbled since taking office in 2022. She appears bewildered by the rules governing council conduct. Her campaign finance reports raise questions as well.
Xochitl Paderes, who served as Padilla’s campaign treasurer but is in a dispute with her over money, emailed, “Michele was naïve when I met her to say the least. She didn’t really know the difference between a council member and a board of supervisor or any elected seat for that matter.”
Padilla also skipped much of the orientation sessions designed to show new council members the ropes, citing work obligations.
On the other hand, in the public comment period preceding the council’s decision to go forward with the censure inquiry, a handful of supporters said Padilla is a good person and effective helping constituents.
It is possible the investigation goes deeper than the tuition issue.
St. Mary’s declined to comment. In one of the emails it called the matter a “troubling situation.”
Fitzgerald’s column runs on Wednesdays. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com