The disclosure of a private investigation commissioned by a
group of anonymous local residents alleges several acts of
corruption by San Benito County Supervisor Richard Scagliotti.
The lengthy report was conducted by a Salinas-based
investigative firm and a copy was released to the Free Lance on
Tuesday.
Scagliotti, 50, is also a local developer who owns several
properties within San Benito County. He vehemently denied any
wrongdoing.
By Kollin Kosmicki and Jed Logan
Staff Writers
The disclosure of a private investigation commissioned by a group of anonymous local residents alleges several acts of corruption by San Benito County Supervisor Richard Scagliotti.
The lengthy report was conducted by a Salinas-based investigative firm and a copy was released to the Free Lance on Tuesday.
Scagliotti, 50, is also a local developer who owns several properties within San Benito County. He vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
“This is a conspiracy intended to discredit the Board of Supervisors,” Scagliotti said Tuesday. “There is no truth to any of these allegations.”
The results of the five-month investigation by Central Coast Investigative Services include four cases of property transactions from which Scagliotti allegedly used his Board influence to gain profit.
Additionally, the final discussion in the report states that Scagliotti violated the state’s open meetings law – the Brown Act – by helping draft the controversial Growth Control Initiative before it came to a Board vote.
The Growth Control Initiative aspect of the investigation is also the basis for a separate lawsuit from the same anonymous group – which calls itself Los Valientes – filed in the county Superior Court on Tuesday.
The litigation challenges a suit filed two weeks ago that claims the process of placing the initiative on the March ballot was illegal. And with the Board recently voting against defending that case, the anonymous group, along with a farmer-based organization, will challenge the suit.
Meanwhile, Los Valientes requested that a one-day hearing on the case scheduled for Oct. 29 be extended an extra day to allow for direct testimony.
Los Valientes stands for “the brave ones” in Spanish.
Scagliotti and others named in the report and lawsuit denounced the group’s anonymity Tuesday and called the allegations unfounded.
“Who’s ever behind this has absolutely no balls to not come forward and say who they are,” said the county’s director of waste management Mandy Rose, an initiative author who is named in both documents for alleged collaborations with Scagliotti during the initiative’s formation. She said the Brown Act was never violated during those meetings.
The group’s Salinas-based lawyer, Michael Pekin, said he also sent a copy of the investigative report to San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield six weeks ago. Sarsfield on Tuesday confirmed receiving the document but declined further comment
Others, however, said Sarsfield has reviewed the report and had subsequently stressed to them the District Attorney’s Office will not take action as a result of the private investigation.
“The DA canned this thing, buried it and said, ‘I’m not giving it out to the public,'” Scagliotti said. “All of the allegations were determined to be unfounded.”
Scagliotti believes big money developers upset over his support of controlled growth are behind the investigation. He said he obtained sworn testimony from “credible witnesses” who identified some of the involved principals, but he did not name those individuals.
Scagliotti said he can provide evidence disputing every alleged instance of misconduct. The report, he said, distorts information by taking it out of context.
In particular, the report conducted by private investigator Dave Henderson first questions Scagliotti’s acquisition in 2000 of land on Orchard Road formerly owned by the Churchill Nut Shelling plant.
As the company filed for bankruptcy a year earlier, the land was obtained for the bargain price of $472,000, according to the report, which claims one other buyer joined the supervisor on the deal. Scagliotti said that two others joined him in buying the property.
The investigation alleges the partners bought the property intending to re-sell it to Beaver Lumber Company, which was looking to relocate to the area. Though the land had to be rezoned before that could legally happen.
The property was rezoned and the report claims Scagliotti profited “in the neighborhood of” $1.2 million.
Another case of alleged misconduct in the report includes the Board’s decision in 2002 to contract all Sheriff’s Department vehicle maintenance to San Benito Tire, which previously had been under contract with the county since 2000.
When that contract expired, the report claims that there were county officials concerned about the maintenance.
With Scagliotti motioning the approval, the Board again contracted San Benito Tire, this time for a three-year deal.
The report claims that Scagliotti had been negotiating – while the Board was considering the Sheriff’s Department contract – with San Benito Tire owner Bob Cain on a separate property deal.
Cain, who acknowledged being friends with Scagliotti, called the suit and investigation “totally slanderous.”
“The San Benito Tire contract was done through an open process, and he was the lowest bidder,” Scagliotti said.
San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill said the decision on where to contract for maintenance of the department’s patrol cars was not his choice.
“I don’t have any control over the contracts for maintenance. That is a decision made on the Board level,” Hill said.
He said the contracts are normally negotiated by the county administration and approved by the Board.
“My only concern is are the cars getting repaired and the safety of my deputies,” Hill said. “I have nothing to do with the rest.”
Three other alleged cases of misconduct during county-related property transactions involving Scagliotti as a Supervisor and developer led up to the final issue addressed in the report – the Growth Control Initiative.
Rose and the five Supervisors who spoke Tuesday claimed there was no violation of the Brown Act. Supervisor Reb Monaco – the lone Board member to vote against the Growth Control Initiative’s initial adoption – said he never even spoke to Rose about the initiative before that vote.
Supervisor Pat Loe declined comment. Supervisor Ruth Kesler said she “may have” talked to Rose about the initiative during its drafting. Supervisor Bob Cruz did not return phone calls.
Board members offering input to authors during the initiative’s drafting phase does not violate the Brown Act, according to Jim Ewert, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
It would, however, violate the law if those individual meetings somehow led to a consensus among the Supervisors, he said.
“Those facts are so hard to prove because you really have to have someone involved in each and every one of those conversations,” Ewert said.
Scagliotti recently announced that he will not run for a fifth term in March. He said the investigation did not influence his decision to step down in any way.
Kesler, who has served on the Board with Scagliotti for nearly 10 years, said she has seen no evidence that he was trying to control the Board or behave in an illegal or improper manner.
“Richard Scagliotti is not that kind of person. He’s a good supervisor and I only wish I had a few more years to serve with him,” Kesler said.
