Santa Ana’s Selective Disclosure Forms

Back in October, Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra was in the blogsphere a lot about his “refusal” to provide retroactive disclosure forms for any meetings he may have had with people who had business before the City of Santa Ana’s Planning Commission.  We’ve documented before, it’s likely that applying a policy retroactively was an overreach by the Planning Commission’s leadership team of Sean H. Mill and Eric Alderete — both of whom likely have designs on a future city council seat.

It got so bad, that Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero started barking about Bacerra’s retroactive written disclosure reports — ex-parte communications — threatening to have Baccera removed from the Planning Commission (Bacerra had provided a full retroactive written account on meetings he had previously verbally disclosed to the Planning Commission).  The redundancy of the written reports was spun to make it look like Bacerra had something to hide, sort of like the many lunch meetings Tinjero allegedly has with city staff so the city can pick up the tab on Sal’s combo plates. So Sal got his panties in a bunch over reports, already verbally provided to the commission, that had to be written and were retroactive in a classic overreach by a city commission that went well beyond their charter.  One gets the idea they are all afraid of a possible Bacerra city council candidacy in 2018.

Since the issue was disclosure, we took a look at the Form 700 disclosure forms filed by Commissioners Mill and Alderete and noticed something askew.  Neither has indicated who their employer was in 2013, nor provided guidance on their compensation.  You can see the documents for yourself at this link. And since Mill has a history of changing documents (he had hundreds of blog posts deleted from the OC political blogs he used to write for to hide his statements on various issues), we’ll post the screen grabs here too:  alderete 700 and Mill700.  And for the hell of it, let’s add Bacerra’s too Bacerra700.

Look at Alderete’s.  Look at Mill’s.  And then look at Bacerra’s.  There’s a noticeable difference in disclosure.  Bacerra tells taxpayers who he works for and provides guidance on his compensation.  Alderete and Mill do not; their employment disclosures for the current reporting period do not exist (Mill has provided these in the past).  In 2013, Alderete was an attorney for US Bank which has an office in Santa Ana.  Mill worked for Title365, which a phone call to their office last week confirmed they handle “hundreds of title transactions in Santa Ana every year.”  Both have new positions at other companies in 2014 — Alderete works for Public Storage, I believe in a legal capacity, and Public Storage has at least one facility in Santa Ana.  Mill now works for WFG Title which hosts lead generation events in Santa Ana disguised as “community forums,” but these events are designed to snare realtors into doing business with Mill’s new company and he’s used the city seal to promote these events in the past.

According to disclosure rules, you don’t have to disclose your employment on a Form 700 if two conditions exist: 1.  You work for a public entity, a city/county/state or federal government office, or 2. Your employer doesn’t do business in the city you are based in.  Clearly in the case of Alderete and Mill, both of their companies have business concerns in the City of Santa Ana so they should have to have disclosed this detail but did not.

Last October 8, we contacted the Santa Ana City Attorney’s office.  Several messages and requests for answers to our questions have been exchanged with the city attorney’s office but as far as “Sunshine” goes, Mill and Alderete are better at talking about it and actually letting it shine on them.

From: Dan Chmielewski  Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 1:43 PM To: ‘rhodge@santa-ana.org’ Cc: ‘Carvalho, Sonia R.’ Subject: RE: Questions on disclosure forms for city planning commissioners

Mr. Hodge –

Please review the chain of communications below, but I am inquiring on the form 700 reports from Planning Commissioners Eric Alderete and Sean H. Mill on why their employment is not disclosed when both of their employers conduct business in the city of Santa Ana. 

 

I have been after an explanation for more than a month.  I would appreciate a response as soon as you are able to explain.

Dan Chmielewski

TheLiberalOC

 

From: Carvalho, Sonia R.  Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 12:16 PM To: ‘Dan Chmielewski’ Subject: RE: Questions on disclosure forms for city planning commissioners

Dan,

Planning Commission attorney, Ryan Hodge, is following up on your request. 

Sonia

 

From: Dan Chmielewski  Sent: Monday, November 03, 2014 2:07 PM To: Carvalho, Sonia R. Subject: RE: Questions on disclosure forms for city planning commissioners

Ms. Carvalho –

I still have not heard from your office on the matter; I understand that Commissioner Alderete now works for Public Storage which has a facility in Santa Ana (I know because I am a customer of this facility).

Can you please explain what’s taking so long to address my query?

Dan Chmielewski

TheLiberalOC

 

From: Carvalho, Sonia R.  Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 8:56 AM To: Dan Chmielewski Subject: Re: Questions on disclosure forms for city planning commissioners

 

Dan,

I am out of the office on bereavement leave.  I will return on Monday.  I have assigned someone to look into this issue and will respond early next week.   Sonia

On Oct 8, 2014, at 3:18 PM, “Dan Chmielewski”  wrote:

I was reviewing Form 700 disclosure forms for the current members of the Santa Ana Planning Commission.  I understand commissioners are supposed to disclose their employer if their employer does business in the city.  Mr. Alderete works as an in-house lawyer for US Bank, which has a branch on Grand Avenue in Santa Ana.  Mr. Mill works for a Title company and we’re told he pitches a number of realtors in the city his company’s business services.  Since both men appear to have professional business ties within the city limits, why is this not disclosed on their Form 700s?

I would appreciate a prompt reply.

Dan

Dan Chmielewski

TheLiberalOC

The questions aren’t particularly hard, so we have no idea why the city attorney’s office can’t answer the questions.  Perhaps Mayor Pro Tem Tinajero can decree disclosures from Mill or Alderete least they be removed from their positions…that is if Mr. Tinajero wanted to be…consistent.

So I’ll ask: what are you trying to hide fellas?