On Thursday, Assembly Member Luis Alejo had a Business Tour of four companys in Watsonville.  One of them was with Martinelli’s Juice Company. Alejo is shown here with John Martinelli and around a group of eleven people. I think thats Supervior Greg Caput with the dark hat way in the back. Alejo is the kinda short guy dressed in dark clothing with some kind of plastic hat on his head on the right.  This is the same Mr. Martinelli who attempted to explain at a city council meeting that the fluoridation of the city’s wells would create a problem that could lead to having to close a portion of his business…..Mayor Alejo shut off his microphone. . Yea man, shut up…jobs?…you know nothing about jobs…I know something about jobs! As some of you may recall Alejo was the leading force in wanting to have Watsonville’s water fluoridiated and also having our downtown park named after Dolores Hurerta.  

I don’t know how it was that Mr. Martinelli decided it was ok to allow Alejo to visit his faciltiy….but maybe they had a telephone conversation and it went something like this: 

“Hello John…”

“Who is this?”

“It’s me Assembly Member Luis Alejo.”

“Alejo???…You have the gall to call me after how you embarrassed me at the city council meeting? You do remember that don’t you?”

“I called to apologize. Look man, I’m sorry…but you know what? I knew there was no way Watsonville was going to get fluoridated. It was impossible…I knew the money 

wasn’t going to be there…but it was politics. I had to convince the Latino voters that I cared about their children’s teeth. Come on man, let’s do lunch. My treat, ok? I’ll pick you up in my new SUV and we’ll go to Jaliscos. Have you seen my new ride? Dude its sweet.”

“Yea I heard about your new car. Read about it on the L.A. Times. I read that ‘Newly elected Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D- Salinas) is taking delivery of a 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid, worth $37,269.’ And that, ’The most expensive new car was purchased for Alejo’. Hey, let me ask you, are you D-Salinas or D-Watsonville because the Santa Cruz Sentinel can’t seem to make up its mind.”

“Well it depends where I’m trying to convince people that I’m trying to create jobs…politics…you know how that works. I wrote a book about jobs the last time I ran for the Assembly. Did you know that? Check out the title. Man, its sooo cool…just as misleading as fluoridating Watsonville. Where in my book cover does it say I will create jobs? Nowhere, that’s right! All I say is that jobs will solve problems. No Duh, Huh? What, am I stoopid? Besides I had City Attorney Alan Smith help me write the book and the cover…man, that dude is the master of creating new vocabulary! Have you ever heard of an Occupied Vacancy? I bet not. Here, I was the mayor of Watsonville who had as much chance of creating jobs as a chicken laying a goose egg and I am going to say I can create jobs now? Hey, I’m sorry…..here I have been flapping my trompas and I haven’t let you even say a word…so, do you have a question?”

“Well yes. . On page 10 of your book you wrote that your dad lost your house because he couldn’t pay the taxes and you co-signed on the deed to help him. But, records show that you purchased the home with your dad and that both of you lost it to foreclosure. Is that true? And did you take a second for $20,000 just before the house foreclosed?”

“You know what Mr. Juice Guy, are you trying to disenfranchise me? Because if you are… you just keep one thing in mind, ok? I own Watsonbell! Turning off your microphone is nothing compared to what I can do to your puny little company!”

“Martinelli’s is known world-wide! You don’t intimidate me!”

“I gotta go. This conversation is over. I’m going home…wherever that is… D-Salinas or D-Watsonbell.

In the background…Elias Alonzo? “Horale!”   

Medows Manor Mobile Home Park residents on Blanca Lane wanted to know one thing, did the owner of the park have the proper permits to add 14 new additional units. The residents have been complaining that their mobile home park was in dire need of road repairs, and that it has poor drainage, sewage backups, poor lighting, and electrical problems. So why was the owner being allowed to add new units without first assuring them that these issues would be first addressed, they were asking.

Assistant City Manager Marcela Tavantiz has been of the opinion since before 2008 that there was little the city could do because the state has jurisdiction over the mobile home park. Her position is partially factual. Both she and the state were of the opinion that a 30-40 year old permit issued by the County of Santa Cruz back in the 70’s was still in effect and that the new owner of the mobile home park, Kenneth Waterhouse, could now add 14 mobile homes.  

It took me, an elected official, around 7 months and around 150 pages of emails, mostly between me and Assistant City Manager Tavantiz, to determine that the city allowed the mobile home property owner to hook up to our city’s sewer system without a Permit and without paying the $156,283.98 in permit fees.  And that the city did not and still has not issued a Stop Work Order to the construction crew even after determining these facts.

Although, after my continual experience with the lack of transparency in our city government, I did not anticipate a 7 month journey which included countless of hours writing and answering emails, making numerous long distance telephone calls to the State of California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, and conducting research, all while Assistant City Manager Marcel Travantiz withheld some documents and provided me with misleading information.  

It was Déjà vu all over again-the nightmare of the missing 1999 KME fire truck fiasco.

Being a trained investigator, what caught my attention was a blatant red flag: that being that Assistant City Manager Tavantiz first attempted to mislead me that a “Stop Work Order” (a city used document) was issued when she supposedly determined that the work crew hired to build the pad for the mobile homes at Meadows Manor had hooked up to our sewer line without a permit. After several emails asking Ms. Tavantiz for a copy of the “Stop Work Order” that the city supposedly issued, Ms. Tavantiz finally admitted that a “verbal” Work Stop Order was issued. A “verbal” Work Stop Order is both non applicable and/or non-existent. And, why would Ms. Tavantiz attempt to mislead me? I mean, we are dealing with around $157,000.00 here, right?

So, I began asking questions, you know, Due Diligence, and found out that a lawsuit was filed in 2001 at the Santa Cruz Superior Court (and resolved in 2008) by Meadows Manor Mobile Home Park owner Kenneth Waterhouse against the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.  It seems that Waterhouse sued the state to obtain a permit to install the 14 mobile homes. Apparently the 30-40 year old permit issued to the original owner may not have been transferable so Waterhouse sued the state to obtain a permit. This contradicted Assistant City Manager Tavantiz’s opinion that the 30 plus year permit was still valid.  

It seems that an Agreement was reached between Waterhouse and the State before a trial was held which included requirements by both parties.

Would you believe that Assistant City Manager Marcela Tavantiz was not aware of the lawsuit? She gets paid over $165,000 per year and I get paid not even 5% of her wages and she can’t find this document which I Googled? 

Would you also believe that Assistant City Manager Marcela Tavantiz was not aware of the Agreement made between the state’s HCD and Waterhouse? Yet, she claimed to have a relationship with both Kenneth Waterhouse and his attorney David Spangengerg? Well how about this letter from the state’s attorney to Spangenberg outlining the Agreement? After sending her a copy of this document, Assistant City Manager Tavantiz wrote me an email stating that she was also not aware this document existed.  

You see that last name on this page? “Dan Fitzgerald”, the “NAO Manager”? He was an employee of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development at the time this Agreement was written on August 1, 2008. Today, Mr. Fitzgerald works for Kenneth Waterhouse, the Meadows Manor Mobile Home Park owner, as a “Consultant”. Imagine that. Fitzgerald, who may have a conflict of interest, is in charge of constructing the pad for the 14 units at Meadows Manor.  According to an email from Tavantiz, Fitzgerald does not have a Contractor’s License. Then why didn’t the city take exception to Fitzgerald being in charge of hooking up to our city’s sewer line?  

Then, after my continual dog style sniffing, the state’s HCD Field Inspector, Chris Anderson, seemed to throw Assistant City Manager Tavantiz under the bus. He wrote the following email:

The Great Recession does have one redeeming quality that is pestering some elected officials and local and state employees- it’s the increasing demand for transparency.

In case you’re not keeping up, The Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee have filed a lawsuit seeking expenditure records from Legislators. It seems this all started when State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, voted against the state budget and he and Assembly Speaker John Perez, also a Dem, got into an imbroglio.  Portantino accused Perez of being retaliatory when his (Portantino’s) budget was slashed by Perez. Portantino, in his own self-defense, is demanding that copies of budgets for all Assembly Members be provided to the public.

One Assemblyman’s budget and expenditures I would like to see is Luis Alejo’s. Certainly he has nothing to hide, except maybe how he outspent all new Assembly Members with his new big black SUV in a “historic” economic time when people without jobs struggle everyday trying to make ends meet.  

But, one has to wonder what would happen here in Watsonville if Assemblyman Portantino demanded transparency. He just might be referenced by the first 3 letters of his title along with “hole” when his name came up in city staff meetings.  Asking questions about how our tax dollars are being spent is like asking for a lung from a bitter chronic smoker.

Tell you why, did any of you notice that in last week’s city council meeting the Grand Jury Report was discussed during the 4:30 PM Redevelopment Agency Session and not the in the regular 6:30 PM City Council Meeting? Where were you at 4:30 PM? In a nutshell, the Grand Jury was very critical of city staff for not being transparent. How did Mayor Daniel Dodge and City Manager Carlos Palacios respond to the Grand Jury allegations? Both took exception. And, although comical but alarming, both responded to the Grand Jury with two separate documents but both used the same verbiage. So who wrote Daniel Dodge’s Media Release letter back in June when the Grand Jury released their report? Was it him or City Manager Palacios? Or did both need assistance from a mystery writer?