June 15, 2006

Campos to submit memo on Cortese allegations to rules committee

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

On June 15, District 5 City Councilmember Nora Campos submitted a memo to the city's Rules Committee calling for an investigation into allegations against District 8 Councilmember and former mayoral candidate Dave Cortese. It will be heard at the June 21 Rules Committee meeting.

Cortese was unaware Campos was planning to submit the memo. He had no comment on June 14 when the Times learned the memo would go to the Rules Committee.

The allegations state Cortese directed staff in a memo, which is against the city charter, and that he lied to the council about meetings with lobbyists and developers involved in the Evergreen Visioning Project in District 8.

Cortese denies both charges, which were first discussed at a May 9 City Council meeting. At that time, the council agreed to uphold city policy and send the issues to the rules committee before the full council discussed them.

Campos, said her chief of staff Maya Esparza, decided to wait until after the election to take the issue to the Rules Committee.

"We have finished going through the process and the election is over," said Esparza. “That should prove that the allegations are not politically motivated.” Councilmember Cortese will have more than minimal time to respond and the rules committee will make the decision on June 21 whether to bring the issues forward or not.

The timing of the allegations caused Cortese supporters and others to allege the accusations were a political ploy to muddy Cortese's reputation less than a month before the mayoral election. The allegations were first brought out by Campos and signed by District 10 City Councilmember Nancy Pyle. Both support Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez for mayor.

The crux of the accusation lies in a quote from Cortese in a city council meeting a year ago on May 17 when he said, “I haven't met with the developers’ lobbyists on this issue at all.”

But, Cortese told the Times after the May 9 council meeting, “the issue” wasn’t the Evergreen development in general, as Campos asserts. It was the very specific topic that was on the council meeting agenda that night; which was reconstituting what is now known as the Evergreen East Hills Visioning Strategy Task Force, a group making recommendations to the city council on the project.

“I seldom if ever have met with lobbyists on any issue over the last five years,” he said.

However, Campos claims to have several lobbyist reports which claim they met with Cortese.

In response, Cortese says the system by which lobbyists report their activities is flawed. He contends that lobbyists will report that attending a public meeting, dropping off a memo or leaving a phone message can be considered lobbying activity. But these aren’t private meetings, Cortese said, and there is no penalty for lobbyists who over report their activities.

Inside the lobbyist reports on file with the city clerk there are no explanations about what goes on at a meeting between a lobbyist and city official, just a list of contacts, a subject and a rough number of “meetings.”