Think
about it: How many politicians that you voted for – even if they were
borderline decent in office – have left public life under an ethical
cloud? Or even after getting into trouble with the law?
This
is why it’s time to really start asking some tough questions about Jim
DeMartini while also taking the time to connect the dots and figure out
what he may be up to. Can you say “abuse of office”?
As we take a deeper look at this issue, let’s look to Patterson, the small city with a big-time develop battle going on.
The November 2nd edition of the Modesto Bee carried a fascinating story that may be the single most embarrassing conduct by a SJ politician in some time. Here’s what went down:
The
citizens advisory committee to the Stanislaus County Council of
Governments policy board voted 7-0 to support state funding for a
short-haul rail link between the Port of Oakland and a proposed
business park near Crows Landing.
The
vote Wednesday night came despite an attack on the project by county
Supervisor Jim DeMartini, and a comment by advisory committee member
Doug Sweetland that DeMartini's actions were "inappropriate" and "an
abuse of (DeMartini's) position."
Hey now! That’s one way to put it.
I’ve
read a lot of troubling news stories in my time, but this is at the
top. How can anyone read this and not conclude that DeMartini is an
embarrassment?
Just like it is with
some of the SJV’s more colorful (read: “not entirely honest”)
politicians, DeMartini is giving us every reason to take a closer look
at what he’s up to. We can’t just chalk it up to eccentricity. We
can’t just say that DeMartini is a contrarian. He’s not. He’s not a
leader, he’s a follower. So what’s he up to?
Some
will no doubt eventually conclude that DeMartini is under the control
of one Ross Perot, Jr. the son of the ex-Presidential candidate of the
same name. Or perhaps he is allowing locals to speculate to that
effect while doing the bidding of all the other local developers who
stand to lose their monopoly on Patterson development.
Perhaps we’ll never know the real story … or perhaps we’re just waiting for some enterprising journalist to ask some real questions and get the real story.
Of course, they haven’t outlawed all of the region’s competitive elections, and now DeMartini has drawn a number of challengers in his uphill race for re-election.
And just when you thought it was safe for you to let your kids read the Bee again …
The truly bizarre story of DeMartini and a 22-year-old woman got the short shrift in the latest Modesto Bee article about this incident.
The
Bee piece described all the fraud charges filed against this woman, but
truly missing from a fairly detailed article was this – oh, I don’t
know – important fact: DeMartini said he co-signed a car loan and gave
a woman decades younger than him a down payment when she wrecked her
car.
Come on, now: Haven’t we all given thousands of dollars to much younger people to whom we are not married?
But, an interesting tidbit emerged from the continuation of the young lady’s trial and a claim from her lawyer, celebrity attorney Mark Geragos:
Then
there was a challenge by Geragos, who said local prosecutors should
turn the case over to the state attorney general's office, because
DeMartini is one of five county supervisors who control the budget of
the district attorney's office. That, he said, amounts to a conflict of
interest.
“He controls the purse strings,” Geragos said.