Pulido Ultimatum

On Tuesday night the Santa Ana City Council voted in closed session to issue an ultimatum to the Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, and the Fair Political Practices Commission demanding that they issue criminal charges against Mayor Miguel Pulido by September 30th or they will release the details of their investigation into Pulido’s property swap windfall. More than 10 months have passed since Voice of OC first reported on a property swap between Pulido and a city contractor that netted Pulido a $197,000 windfall and the contractor subsequently being awarded a $1.35 million no-bid contract to provide the city with auto parts for its city fleet.

Voice of OC reports today:

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho began investigating the deal almost immediately after the article was published and six months ago turned over a report to the DA’s office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. The DA and the FPPC then launched their own investigations.

Since then, frustrations among council members at the pace of the investigations have mounted.

In July, Voice of OC filed a request for Carvalho’s report under the California Public Records Act. The request was denied, citing the ongoing investigations.

On Tuesday, Carvalho, speaking on behalf of the council, said six months is enough time for the agencies to complete their investigations and expressed the council’s desire to release the report sooner rather than later in the name of transparency.

In early June, Voice of OC reported that the ‘Chumminess’ of DA and Mayor Makes Insiders Suspicious. according to their report:

In his State of the City address Wednesday, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido spoke passionately about the city’s efforts to reduce crime, improve neighborhoods and create better educational opportunities for its children.

But a day later, it wasn’t the speech that many who attended the event were talking about. It was the visual of Pulido and District Attorney Tony Rackauckas — who is leading a criminal investigation into a property swap between the mayor and a city contractor — sitting together at the head table.

Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides, who ran against Pulido for mayor in 2012, openly questioned the seating arrangement, saying it creates the impression that the DA might go soft on the mayor.

“Seeing Miguel with Tony, it does give one question or concern, if the DA is investigating somebody, that there would be this closeness or chumminess,” Benavides said. “One wonders whether there is an impartial investigation.”

It will be interesting to see if the FPPC or the DA blink and release their reports or criminal charges by the September 30th deadline. On way or the other, the public should know more about this investigation by then. If released, the report will arrive just in time to provide ammunition targeting Pulido in the November general election.