The small but growing San Benito County wants to prevent
political corruption and, in the process, restore public confidence
in local government.
The small but growing San Benito County wants to prevent political corruption and, in the process, restore public confidence in local government.
If the Board of Supervisors follows through on plans to form its first ethics commission, the county would put the actions local elected officials under a more vigorous scrutiny.
Tuesday, supervisors tentatively agreed to the makeup and responsibilities for such a task force and indicated its formation is now just a formality. The ethics commission’s formation will be part of a campaign finance ordinance up for final approval Sept. 14.
The notion of an ethics commission arose earlier this year as more attention has focused on the county’s varying headaches: a vicious debate over Measure G, a corruption lawsuit against the county, an investigation of a supervisor’s election and now a sexual harassment suit against the district attorney.
“This has nothing to do with honesty,” Supervisor Bob Cruz said. “This just has something to do with, we are growing.”
The commission would be composed of nine members, including an elected official, a legal expert and volunteers from each supervisor’s district, among others. It would oversee the monitoring of, and serve as an advisory board to, elected officials.
Supervisor Pat Loe has been the most vocal supporter of having an ethics commission. The four other supervisors accepted her recommendations for the commission, which, aside from the makeup, also include members having one-year terms and receiving no financial compensation.
“I believe that we should be more proactive in some of these things,” Loe said. “We shouldn’t be so reactionary.”
District Attorney John Sarsfield, the only speaker on the subject Tuesday, supported the commission and thanked the board for pursuing its formation. He mentioned, without naming names, how a local candidate recently sent out flyers saying an elected official had been indicted, which is not the case.
“No one has been indicted,” Sarsfield said, adding such a statement on a campaign flyer is borderline slander.
Later in the discussion, Cruz – whose camp has accused his challenger and the 10-vote victor of the March District 5 race, Jaime De La Cruz, of election fraud – said there’s no disputing dishonesty exists in local politics.
It doesn’t matter, he said, that San Benito is a small county and such commissions are much more common in larger cities, such as San Jose and San Francisco.
Cruz said having such a commission in San Benito County can’t hurt, that it “keeps everybody on the up and up.”
“No matter how you tweak it around, it (dishonesty) is still there,” Cruz said, adding, “Honesty is honesty.”
Though certain supervisors such as Loe and Cruz have expressed strong support for an ethics commission, it wouldn’t have a direct connection, or be supervised by, the board. Furthermore, the board asked that commission members, once it is formed, draft its by-laws.
