By Arturo Catcañas
Editor-at-Large
The mayor of Imperial Beach made a wrong claim against the mayor of Chula Vista when the two city guides were exposed to a job in a special election in the County Board of Supervisors.
This week, Paloma Aguirre exhibited in the social post that John McCann was at the center of a political corruption scandal of the school district “in the center”, in which 18 people were charged in 2012, including six members of the school board, but McCann was the only sitting board member who was not charged with crimes in the investigation.
McCann, who had previously served two four -year term in the Chula Vista city council, before he was elected to the Sweetwater Union High School District in November 2010, later returned to the city council and was elected mayor in 2022.
John McCann
At the beginning of 2012, the district prosecutor of San Diego, Bonnie Dumanis, calculated 15 people in a year -long corruption ring, which included the superintendents of three school districts, school authorities and a private company manager who conspired to deliver lucrative building contracts to companies that had made campaign contributions and expensive dinner available to civil servants.
However, the majority of corrupt actions occurred before McCann was even elected to the school authority.
“Sweetwater School Board. One of the greatest corruption scandals in the history of San Diego. Bribery, Backroom deals, Broken Trust. And John McCann was at the center.
The message was published under Aguirres personal account.
Rudy O. Lopez, Jr., a current board member, a board member, published on social media in response to aguirre and her comments as “try to win voices to get voices through the mud for his opponent.”
“As I see it, they would not have to go negative if they didn't go out the positive things anymore,” added Lopez.
Lopez and Aguirre are both democrats; McCann is a registered Republican.
At the time of the charges in 2012, four of the five seated members of the Sweetwater Union High School District – Arlie Ricasa, Bertha Lopez, Jim Cartmill and Pearl Quiñonez – were charged with various crimes, but no accusations were made against McCann.
The then superintendent of Sweetwater, Jesus Gandara, was also charged with a conspiracy to judge lucrative construction contracts to certain companies that provided the board members and Gandara campaign contributions and free gifts.
In addition, Greg Sandoval Greg Sandoval, the former board member of four-term Sweetwater, was charged after leaving the board.
In the end, all 18 defendants are guilty of providing charges, with Gandara and Sandoval received prison periods and convicted other convictions with fines and community service.
According to the convictions, McCann was the only remaining member of the Sweetwater School Board, so that a judge of the Supreme Court, Susan Hartley, was appointed the board of the district committee, Susan Hartley. Together, Hartley and McCann voted to appoint three other members of the district committee for the school authority until the elections to replace the convicted members were held.
“McCann was the only one of five trustees who were not involved in a far -reaching corruption case in South County. The other four trustees cleared their seats after they are guilty and were replaced by members of the district committee,” said an article with the conclusion of the corruption model in McCann in September 2016.
On July 1, McCann and Aguirre are in a special election outflow to replace the former district manager Nora Vargas, which resigned in January.
McCann collected 42.4% of the votes in the special elections on April 8, with Aguirre a place with 32.2% under seven candidates in seconds. Since no candidate has received a large part of the votes, an outflow election must be held.
The candidate, who wins, leaves a vacancy on the seat of his mayor and has his replacement selected either by the appointment of the remaining members of his respective city council or by a special election.
McCann is the mayor of Chula Vista and commander in the US marine reserves. Aguirre is the mayor of Imperial Beach and a non -profit preservative manager.
The special election outflow is July 1st.