A former county planning commissioner has formed a watchdog
organization in light of allegations of corruption in government
and speculation about the March 2 election.
A former county planning commissioner has formed a watchdog organization in light of allegations of corruption in government and speculation about the March 2 election.
Dennis Madigan, a Hollister resident, spearheaded the “Citizens for Clean Government.” He filed the appropriate application and fee with the Secretary of State’s Office this week to form the limited liability corporation, he said.
The Board of Supervisors removed Madigan from the Planning Commission in September – he had been appointed by Supervisor Reb Monaco in January 2003.
Other residents are also in the organization, he said. But Madigan withheld their names, saying, “I’m not at liberty to dispose” their identities.
“With all the activity that’s been reported in the newspapers,” Madigan said, “everything from Measure G to this past election, I think that an unbiased group has to be formed to assist in getting to the bottom of any problems.”
Its members have retained private investigator Dave Henderson and his Salinas firm, Central Coast Investigative Services.
Henderson’s investigation of Supervisor Richard Scagliotti and other county officials in 2003 resulted in a civil lawsuit, which is still active in the Superior Court.
That probe was commissioned by an anonymous group called Los Valientes. Henderson said members of Los Valientes are not involved in the Citizens for Clean Government.
District Attorney John Sarsfield this week hired a Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office inspector to investigate the District 5 results. Challenger Jaime De La Cruz unofficially defeated incumbent Bob Cruz by 10 votes.
There are questions surrounding improperly returned absentee ballots. So far, Henderson said he hasn’t found any wrongdoing by De La Cruz or his campaign.
The organization, Henderson said, doesn’t plan to stop with the election issue. A continually functioning watchdog group, he said, “is long overdue.”
“I affectionately call it the ‘dying groan of the good old boy network,’ ” said the usually hush Henderson. “And it’s coming to an end.”
He also echoed murmurs circulating the county about Measure G, a growth control initiative that was handily defeated in the March 2 election.
“It’s our belief that the current powers that be are going to try to accomplish by ordinance what the citizens voted down in Measure G,” said Henderson, referring to a Board that initially passed the initiative as an ordinance in April 2003.
Madigan was removed from the Planning Commission because he addressed complaints of constituents – rather than passing them on to his supervisor.
Madigan placed an advertisement in a Sept. 3 edition of the Free Lance requesting feedback on the direction of the planning process – the Board did not approve.
