[Monterey County] Salinas councilman Castañeda: Grand jury didn’t let him tell his side of story

Salinas >> Controversial Salinas City Councilman José Castañeda says he hasn’t read a civil grand jury report insisting he pay a $5,000 court-ordered fine, but criticized the grand jury’s failure to consider his side of the matter.

“I’m appalled why the civil grand jury hasn’t allowed me to stand before them and answer their questions,” he said Thursday. “I’m pretty sure they know where I live. At the same time, I’m not surprised. This is another desperate attempt from the status quo.”

The report, issued earlier this week, said the grand jury made “several written and oral attempts” to interview Castañeda but “he refused to respond in any way.”

The report asked Salinas city officials to go after Castañeda to pay the fine for refusing to step down as an Alisal school board member after he was elected to the council. And it suggested the city could even seek to have Castañeda jailed for contempt of court while acknowledging the city’s conclusion that Castañeda had “no attachable assets” and other civil judgments against him. The city has spent more than $26,500 on the case.

“Even though it may not be ‘cost-effective’ to resume efforts to collect the fine from Mr. Castañeda,” the report read, “it is the (grand jury’s) opinion that Mr. Castañeda must be held to the same standard as every other citizen and pay this legal obligation, especially since he brought it upon himself.”

The report also called for city officials to explore amending the city’s charter to allow for removal of a councilmember who is convicted of a “crime of moral turpitude” or fails to pay a court-imposed fine.

In reaching its conclusion, the grand jury blasted Castañeda’s “defiant behavior and apparent disrespect for the law,” tying it to his pre-election conviction for lying on a recall form targeting Supervisor Fernando Armenta, and suggesting a pattern.

City attorney Chris Callihan noted that the city pursued the incompatible offices case against Castañeda after the state attorney general declined to do so, and the $5,000 fine would be paid to the state and not the city. Callihan said any amendment to the city’s charter would have to be approved by the voters, and he wasn’t sure if removal from office under the grand jury’s criteria was even legally possible. He said the City Council would consider a response to the grand jury, probably at its July 7 meeting.

Castañeda suggested the investigation was politically motivated given its focus on him rather than other critical issues, including police brutality.

The report outlined Castañeda’s election to the council in 2012, replacing former councilman Sergio Sanchez, when he was still president of the Alisal school board and his subsequent refusal to resign his school board seat after he was elected to the council. The court finally removed him from the school board and levied the fine nearly a year after his council election.

Castañeda said he still doesn’t believe the council and school board offices included a “significant clash of duties” and he still refuses to recognize the court’s decision.

June 18, 2015

Monterey Herald

By Jim Johnson