Chula Vista mayoral candidate John McCann broke metropolis and state marketing campaign finance legal guidelines after hiring a non-public investigator to watch his rival, in keeping with a grievance filed Monday.
Jose F. Cerda, a former president of the Chula Vista Democratic Membership, makes a number of allegations in a “sworn grievance” to the Metropolis Clerk’s Workplace and the state Truthful Political Practices Fee.
The claims grew out of a McCann press convention wherein the Chula Vista councilman, a Republican, accused Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar of constructing his residence on the San Diego condominium of his girlfriend, Rep. Sara Jacobs.
Campa-Najjar has denied the accusations of not being a Chula Vista resident. Now McCann is being focused,
In line with a 1,200-word letter to Metropolis Clerk Kerry Ok. Bigelow and CC’d to FPPC Director of Enforcement Angela Brereton, Cerda seeks investigations of the work, and financial worth, of former FBI agent Lawrence J. Hamilton in having the Jacobs residence staked out.
At a Sept. 27 press convention, the letter says, Hamilton indicated that “[o]ver the course of 32 days … he compiled greater than 70 movies and photographs of Campa-Najjar dwelling together with his girlfriend Sara Jacobs at her condominium in San Diego.”
The letter quotes a Union-Tribune story‘ that “Hamilton mentioned he or his associates saved watch each evening since August each at Jacobs’ residence and Campa-Najjar’s residence in Chula Vista.”
Cerda, an area real-estate agent, says McCann’s spouse, Myllissa McCann, reported that the marketing campaign “paid Hamilton a mere $1,000 for conducting this ‘opposition analysis.’ And, on his pre-election marketing campaign report, filed on September 29, 2022, McCann reported a $1,000 disbursement to ‘Lawrence Hamilton Particular Investigative [sic] Unit’ for that quantity.”
However Cerda notes that the Chula Vista Municipal Code limits the sources and quantity of funds {that a} candidate for metropolis workplace could settle for — $350 per election.
“The details point out that [Hamilton’s company] possible made, and McCann and his committee accepted, an unlawful and extreme in-kind contribution within the type of deeply discounted private companies,” the letter says.
“Given the time-intensive nature of his work, and Mr. Hamilton’s credentials, the truthful market worth of SIU’s companies needed to exceed $1,000.”
Cerda says the details “compel the inclusion” that Hamilton’s Particular Investigation Unit made a prohibited contribution to McCann, and that McCann and his committee accepted such a prohibited contribution.
“Furthermore, to the extent that the truthful market worth of SIU’s companies exceeded $1,360 – they usually most actually did – SIU made, and McCann accepted, an extreme in-kind contribution,” the letter mentioned.
As well as, the letter says, McCann violated the state’s Political Reform Act by failing to totally disclose his marketing campaign’s sources of economic assist.
“I perceive that, by submitting a sworn grievance underneath penalty of perjury, I could also be topic to felony prosecution if the grievance is fake,” Cerda wrote within the letter dated Monday.
McCann, Hamilton and Campa-Najjar didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Nor has the FPPC or the Chula Vista Metropolis Clerk’s Workplace.
McCann has been the topic of no less than 5 complaints earlier than to the FPPC, says company spokesman Jay Wierenga, who confirms that any violation of the Political Reform Act may end up in a penalty of as much as $5,000 per violation.
“Penalties are decided by a myriad of things,” Wierenga instructed Occasions of San Diego. “The penalty for every violation relies on elements akin to complexity and seriousness of the case, the hurt to the public, the cooperation of these concerned, whether or not the violation was deliberate, negligent or inadvertent, and penalties issued in earlier instances which are related in nature. … So penalties can vary from a Warning Letter as much as $5,000 per.”
This story might be up to date.
