Just when you thought the universe couldn't
get any weirder, there's this.
The Monterey County Civil Grand Jury, a body
with virtually no enforcement abilities (they issue reports, the party on the
receiving end of the report says, "No we didn't" or "Yeah,
so?" and everyone moves on with their lives) has tackled the conundrum
that is Salinas City Councilman Jose Castañeda.
The city was alerted to the report this
afternoon, and almost immediately the document was forwarded to local media
(despite a note on it that reads, "Confidential, immediate attention
required") before it was available on the county's website. The report was
to remain confidential for 48 hours before the county published it; nobody's
admitting to forwarding it quite yet and the Weekly obtained a copy via
an on-the-fly Public Records Act request with the Salinas City Attorney's
office.
Castañeda, reached by phone, said that as of
about 10pm, he had not read the report. He called the county Grand Jury part of
a "whitewashed system" set up to serve the establishment.
"You take the most serious issues
happening with the status quo and push them aside and focus on what's really
making noise, like myself," Castañeda says. "Other grand juries
throughout the state have true teeth. They take care of the status quo. Here
the status quo makes sure it takes care of itself."
Castañeda is widely reviled by his council
colleagues, despite the fact he was not involved in a meeting that led to the
city paying a litigious librarian $400,000 because three other councilmembers
hurt her feelings while the city manager just sort of sat there. The city had
to take him to court to force him off the Alisal Union School District Board
(serving in two elected positions being a no no) and is still waiting payment
of a $5,000 fine imposed in that case. He's pleaded no contest to a charge of
filing a false affidavit during a recall attempt against Monterey County
Supervisor Fernando Armenta; he reportedly tussled with a tamale delivery
person who refused to leave his grandmother's property; and he aligns himself
with social justice causes the establishment finds distasteful.
The cops can't stand him either. In April,
two Salinas Police commanders (meaning they rank so high on the food chain they
shouldn't be hanging out and issuing traffic citations) camped out on
Castañeda's cul de sac, waited for him to show up and then cited him for
driving on a suspended license (for failure to pay a years-old speeding
ticket). They also cited him for driving without proof of insurance; while Castañeda
had trouble finding the proof-of-insurance document, police had already written
the citation and refused to start over after he produced it. The car, which
Castañeda was using to transport Millenium Charter School students making a
documentary about homelessness in Chinatown, belonged to former Salinas City
Councilman Sergio Sanchez's wife; it was about to be towed when she showed up
and talked them out of it.
Castañeda tells the Weekly he
will be on hand at Salinas City Hall on Thursday with famed Oakland-based civil
rights attorney John Burris; they plan on demanding a
"Ferguson-style" Department of Justice investigation into the Salinas
Police Department. Burris last week met with the family of Jose Velasco, a
mentally ill drug addict who was beaten into submission by baton-wielding
police on June 5 after witnesses reported he tried to shove his mother into
traffic on North Main Street. (Attempts to subdue him with Tasers failed.) His
mother, Rita Acosta, said she was unharmed during the incident and believes her
son, who has untreated mental illness, was trying to protect her from
hallucinations dogging him that day.
Castañeda tried to accompany Burris to
Monterey County Jail, along with Velasco's family, to visit Velasco last week.
A jail clerk told a Salinas Police officer who happened to be there that
Castañeda tried to portray himself as a member of the family. But, as pointed
out on the Monterey Bay Partisan blog, it's not clear if Castañeda lied, or if
the clerk misinterpreted him when he said he was with the family.
So what does the Grand Jury recommend? That
the city change its charter so the council can remove any member convicted of a
crime of moral turpitude or the failure to pay a fine imposed by the court.
The report castigates him for his
"defiant behavior" and "apparent disrespect for the law."
The report also states the Grand Jury attempted to interview Castañeda, but he
refused to respond to their inquiries.
June 17, 2015
Monterey
County Weekly: News Blog
By
Mary Duan
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