De La Cruz opposes traditional appointment
For the first time in memory, a sitting supervisor broke
protocol by voting against another supervisor nominated for Chair
of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors.
Freshman Supervisor James De La Cruz of District 5 was the lone
dissenter among his fellow county representatives Tuesday when they
moved to vote on Supervisor Pat Loe’s nomination as Chairperson of
the Board. Loe takes over for Supervisor Reb Monaco who served as
Chair for 2005.
De La Cruz opposes traditional appointment
For the first time in memory, a sitting supervisor broke protocol by voting against another supervisor nominated for Chair of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors.
Freshman Supervisor James De La Cruz of District 5 was the lone dissenter among his fellow county representatives Tuesday when they moved to vote on Supervisor Pat Loe’s nomination as Chairperson of the Board. Loe takes over for Supervisor Reb Monaco who served as Chair for 2005.
When De La Cruz was asked the reason he opposed the appointment, he declined comment..
Supervisor Don Marcus nominated Loe and Supervisor Anthony Botelho made the second. Supervisors become chairs on a rotational basis, and Loe, the most tenured supervisor, was overdue to wield the gavel because she allowed Monaco to take it last January on the condition that she remain on certain committees.
But the moment was doubly mystifying when, after Loe’s nomination, outgoing Chair Monaco declared the voting process a “white ballot.” No one knew what that was.
According to Monaco, it simply means there are no other nominations.
“That’s a standard procedure when there are no other nominations,” Monaco said after the meeting. “It appears most people have never heard of it, and I’ve sat on many boards where it’s done routinely. I did it, I guess out of habit. I hope people aren’t reading anything into it.”
But Loe said the “white ballot” method allows the supervisors to vote “for the white ballot, not for Pat Loe,” and therefore, De La Cruz would be on record as voting against the white ballot, not a fellow supervisor.
Monaco said there was nothing devious about making the nomination a white ballot.
“I don’t know if it’s all that unusual for someone to vote against another supervisor,” Monaco offered. “It’s his [De La Cruz’] prerogative. I didn’t discuss it with him beforehand.”
Loe, who has served Hollister and the county for two decades in her roles as a city councilwoman, an appointed county planning commissioner and now as a supervisor, said she has never seen such a breach of political protocol during a changing of the guard.
“To my knowledge they (elected members of past boards) have never done anything like that,” Loe said in a post meeting interview. “If I couldn’t support another supervisor, I would be straight up front about it. If I really felt there was a problem with another supervisor, I’d ask them straight out to explain themselves.”
Former colleagues of Loe were appalled by what they called De La Cruz’ “bad form.” Former Supervisor Ruth Kesler was particularly disturbed by the move, and said it was even more “unbelievable” when De La Cruz told the daily paper that he voted against Loe because she had been on the previous board that had allegedly spent too much money on “frivolous lawsuits.”
“He was the b—— we had to spend it on,” Kesler shot back, referring to a lawsuit De La Cruz and his advisor, Ignacio Velasquez, brought against her and the county. The suit alleged that Kesler called De La Cruz “boy” during a supervisors’ meeting. A review of the tape transcript of the meeting revealed Kesler had said “buddy.” The suit was dropped last year, but not until after the county spent $50,000 defending against it.
“It was awful, awful protocol,” Kesler added in regards to De La Cruz’ vote against Loe. “You don’t do that. To think that our county would allow someone like that on our Board of Supervisors – I have not been to one meeting because I would let him have it. It was the worst thing that a supervisor, who’s supposed to be a gentlemen, to have done. It really just made me sick.”
“De La Cruz is a bigot who doesn’t believe that women should be in charge of anything,” said District Attorney John Sarsfield, after he heard about the meeting.
Loe said she feels De La Cruz has declared political war on her for the remainder of the year.
“I don’t even think De La Cruz gets it,” Loe said. “Each supervisor represents a district and it’s a disservice to their constituents to behave like that. They are voted in by the people of that district and those people deserve better.”
Though he refused to speak to a Pinnacle reporter, De La Cruz did call the newspaper to remind everyone that Jan. 17 is the expiration date on the criminal charges against him in the 2004 District 5 elections dispute. After bargaining with the D.A.’s office almost a year ago, De La Cruz pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for obstructing a peace officer in the course of an investigation. The sentence was “pending,” which meant if the new supervisor is caught committing even a misdemeanor over the course of a year, he would have to go to jail for the original charge, which would automatically turn into a felony. As of publication date, De La Cruz has nine more days to go in staying crime-free before the charges pending against him are dropped.
