Recent court testimony from developer Richard Ferreira included
an allegation
– at least how he perceived it – that former Supervisor Bob Cruz
solicited a $170,000 bribe in exchange for support on a 2002 senior
housing project.
Recent court testimony from developer Richard Ferreira included an allegation – at least how he perceived it – that former Supervisor Bob Cruz solicited a $170,000 bribe in exchange for support on a 2002 senior housing project.
While startling, the testimony came six years after the alleged discussion between Ferreira and Cruz and it leaves too much open for interpretation for authorities to make any headway on a potential investigation.
During the civil trial against former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti, Ferreira was called to the stand by attorney Mike Pekin, who has been going after the former board chairman and his former peers, including Cruz, since he filed the first version of the current lawsuit alleging corruption in 2003.
Ferreira on the stand told Pekin about a conversation he had with Cruz over a 170-unit senior housing project that required an annexation approval by the Local Agency Formation Commission, of which Cruz and Scagliotti were members in their capacity as supervisors:
“Well, I was kind of taken aback because Supervisor Cruz asked us in order to get his vote he was requesting that we give him $1,000 per unit,” Ferreira said in the testimony, according to the court transcript.
Whether Cruz said what Ferreira alleged – which Cruz denied in an e-mail, even under a legal pretense of asking for a “reimbursement” – it still would be too hard to prove and would stand to waste more county officials’ time and taxpayers’ money.
Knowing what we know, there’s no reason to doubt anyone in this circumstance, and that leaves little for authorities to probe.
