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Stockton City Council moves forward with investigation into Michele Padilla’s reprimand

Gillberg
Stockton City Council moves forward with investigation into Michele Padilla’s reprimand

The Stockton City Council will move forward with censure proceedings against 1st District Councilmember Michele Padilla, who is facing an investigation into the use of taxpayer funds for a community event where political candidates spoke on stage.

Padilla hosted a public barbecue at Michael Faklis Park in north Stockton on July 20. The event featured four candidates from the Nov. 5 general election speaking on stage — City Council candidates Jason Lee and Mario Enríquez, mayoral candidate Christina Fugazi and San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors candidate Mario Gardea.

Some candidates’ comments contained specific messages about the November election, prompting two council members to file complaints with city officials.

In the complaint, 3rd District Councilman Michael Blower and 5th District Councilman Brando Villapudua alleged that Padilla violated Council Policy 5.10, which sets guidelines for the use of discretionary funds by council members and the mayor. They claimed Padilla used over $10,000 in discretionary funds “to host a community event that became political.”

Council members receive $15,000 in discretionary funds annually, while the mayor receives $60,000. The council is prohibited by policy from spending the money on activities or events of a political or religious nature.

At Tuesday’s meeting, council members had the opportunity to stop the motion of no confidence, but ultimately decided to continue with it.

An ad hoc committee was set up to determine whether the event was political in nature, whether the Council member had violated Council policies, and to make a recommendation as to whether she should be censured.

Mayor Kevin Lincoln appointed 2nd District Councilman Dan Wright and 4th District Councilwoman Susan Lenz to assist him on the ad hoc committee.

Before the decision to form the ad hoc committee was made, Padilla accused her colleagues of “fanning the flames of controversy” and expressed disappointment that they spoke to local media about the issue.

She specifically named Blower, Wright and Vice Mayor Kimberly Warmsley, claiming the three had determined their guilt “without even calling or speaking to anyone else.”

“This is not about ethics. This is about silencing someone who is not a member of their bought and paid for political clique and agenda. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to join the Mickey Mouse Club. That’s not me,” Padilla said.

The councilor emphasized that the public barbecue was “intended to provide safe fun for the whole family” and introduced the political candidates as her “friends.”

“The fact is that this was not a political event at all. There was no intention whatsoever. There was no program. There was no agenda,” Padilla said. “The candidates were there and they didn’t even know that I was planning to call them to the stage.”

However, not everyone was convinced.

David Scatena, a Stockton resident for more than 50 years, said he could not recall ever reading about or being made aware of such unethical activities or actions by a council member before receiving these allegations.

“I am deeply concerned that Ms. Padilla continues to engage in activities under the guise of a council member that are unacceptable to me and the taxpayers of Stockton,” Scatena said. “In my opinion, Ms. Padilla frequently crosses the lines into unethical activities and actions that are not in the best interest of the citizens of Stockton or the council.”

Joey Veltri, on the other hand, said he has been friends with Padilla for over 40 years and has never seen the councilwoman “do anything wrong with the intent of breaking the rules.”

“Anyone who knows Michele knows that her constituents love her and her friends love her even more,” Veltri said. “In her first year in office, she hosted this first annual community barbecue. She invited her constituents, friends and the entire town. She never announced or planned or planned in advance anything other than a community barbecue. It is obvious that Councilwoman Padilla is being singled out and attacked by her fellow council members.”

Esperanza Vielma, a resident of the councilwoman’s district, said Padilla has “continued to demonstrate commitment to our community by showing up at events, engaging with residents and working tirelessly to represent our interests.”

“We have to remember that we are in the midst of a political season and this is a time when both elected officials and candidates are naturally more visible, as they should be,” Vielma said. “Investigating these actions as possible violations of policy sets a dangerous precedent.”

Andrew Abbott disagreed. He said there had been “a lot of bad news” coming out of the City Council recently, most of it apparently revolving around Padilla. He called on the councilwoman to resign and urged her to cooperate with future investigations.

“It’s on video, and if we don’t believe our eyes and ears, it’s definitely a violation of City Council policy and possibly a criminal misappropriation of public funds, which she’s still kind of denying,” Abbott said. “Stockton is a great place, but we have a long and sad history of political abuse of office … and that’s where it should be, behind us, not in front of us.”

According to the city calendar, there is currently no scheduled meeting date for the ad hoc committee. In addition to the reprimand, the city could also revoke Padilla’s reimbursement rights, demand a refund, report the expenditure to the city council as income or recommend criminal prosecution for misuse of public funds.

Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

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