June 30, 2006

Rules Committee and City Council exonerate Councilman Dave Cortese

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

District 8 City Councilmember Dave Cortese was exonerated from all charges stemming from a memo Councilmembers Nora Campos and Nancy Pyle released weeks before the June 6 mayoral primary.

The Rules Committee cleared Cortese at its June 21 hearing. It concluded that no further investigation was warranted nor was any action necessary. The City Council ratified those findings at its June 27 meeting voting to clear Cortese.

The allegations stated that Cortese directed staff in a memo, which is against the city charter, and that he lied to the council about meetings with lobbyists and developers involved in the Evergreen East Hills Visioning Strategic Task Force in District 8.

According to a memo from City Clerk Lee Price, the committee was investigating whether the District 8 council member withheld material facts from the council regarding the Evergreen East Hills Vision Strategy Task Force. The allegations also claimed that Cortese misled the City Council and the public with denials of meetings with lobbyists and developers.

Apparently events were actually misunderstood by all concerned. Cortese was unaware that even a phone call stating that he did not want to see or talk to lobbyists or developers resulted in the lobbyists listing that as a meeting or contact, According to the findings, he did not meet with the lobbyists in question, but did turn them down when they called him. They listed his response as a contact, and Cortese thought turning them down was the same as not having spoken with the lobbyists.

The upshot was a unanimous vote during the council meeting determining that no further investigation is necessary nor should any action be taken against the council member.

In addition, it referred the definition of registered lobbyist contacts to the Sunshine Reform Task Force to decide if the types of lobbyist contacts and additional information warrant additional differentiation. It asked that the EEHVS meet with the City Council in August to update their process including any modifications to its work plan, products and timeline.

It also directs the city clerk and city attorney to refine new council member and staff orientation and ethics training and what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate language relating to council/staff interaction. The Rules Committee also directed the city attorney and city manager to work together to draft factors that determine when an advisory body to the council should be officially recognized and subjected to the Brown Act.

Finally, it added a new turn of events to the June 27 council meeting, when, prior to a vote on land use, all the council members noted they had met with a developer in order to avoid further problems.

The allegations against Cortese surfaced about a month before the primary election on May 9. Cortese, who was running for mayor, was surprised by the allegations and quickly proclaimed his innocence.

Nothing more was said until June 15, when Campos submitted the memo to the Rules Committee for discussion at its June 21 meeting.

At that time, Campos’ chief of staff Maya Esparza, told the Times that the councilwoman had decided to wait until after the election to take the issue to the Rules Committee.

Cortese, who denied the charges, said, “the timing was unfortunate—one month before the election. It seemed intended to coincide with the political process, but I can’t speculate on what went on in their decision making process.”

The timing of the allegations initially caused Cortese supporters and others to allege the accusations were a political ploy to muddy Cortese’s reputation just prior to the elections. Both Campos and Pyle support Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez for mayor.

“What I feel more than any other emotion is gratitude for the friends, family and community, those who have stuck by me and asserted my integrity,” Cortese told the Times. “No doubt the lobbyist reporting process needs to be overhauled, and I will be following that process closely in hopes that others won’t be wrongly accused as I was.”