By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large

The Mayor of Imperial Beach made a false claim against the Mayor of Chula Vista as the two city leaders face off in a special election to fill a vacancy on the County Board of Supervisors.

Paloma Aguirre posted on social post this week that  John McCann was “at the center” of a school district political corruption scandal that saw 18 people indicted in 2012, including six school board members, but McCann was the only sitting Board member not charged with any crimes in the investigation that included three school districts.

McCann, who had previously served two four-year terms on the Chula Vista City Council before being elected to the Sweetwater Union High School District in November 2010, later returned to the City Council in 2014 and was elected Mayor in 2022.

John McCann

In early 2012, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis charged 15 individuals in a years-long corruption ring that included the Superintendents of three school districts, school board members, and a private company executive who conspired to direct lucrative construction contracts to companies who had provided campaign contributions and expensive dinners to officials.

But the majority of the corrupt acts occurred before McCann was even elected to the school board.

“Sweetwater School Board. One of the biggest corruption scandals on San Diego history. Bribery, backroom deals, broken trust. And John McCann was at the center of it. He never took responsibility -and now he wants more power. South Bay deserved better than a corrupt retread,” Aguirre’s post reads.

The message was posted under Aguirre’s personal account.

A current Sweetwater school board member, Rudy O. Lopez, Jr., posted on social media in response to Aguirre, calling out her comments as “someone’s attempt to gain votes by attempting to drag Sweetwater through the mud in the process of hitting their opponent.”

"The way I see it, you wouldn't have to go negative if you hadn't run out of positive things to say about yourself," Lopez added.

Lopez and Aguirre are both Democrats; McCann is a registered Republican.

At the time of the indictments in 2012, four of the five sitting members of the Sweetwater Union High School District — Arlie Ricasa, Bertha Lopez, Jim Cartmill, and Pearl Quiñonez—were charged with various crimes, but no allegations were made against McCann.

Sweetwater’s then-Superintendent, Jesus Gandara, was also charged in what prosecutors called a conspiracy to direct lucrative construction contracts to specific companies who provided campaign contributions and free gifts to the board members and Gandara.

Additionally, former four-term Sweetwater school board member Greg Sandoval was charged after he had already left the board.

In the end, all 18 defendants pleaded guilty to charges, with Gandara and Sandoval receiving jail time and others accepting misdemeanor convictions with fines and community service.

After the convictions, McCann was the sole remaining member of the Sweetwater school board so a Superior Court Judge appointed County Board of Education President Susan Hartley to serve temporarily on the board. Together, Hartley and McCann voted to appoint three other members of the County Board of Education to serve on the school board until elections were held to replace the convicted members.

“McCann was the only one of five trustees not involved in a wide-ranging South County corruption case. The other four trustees vacated their seats after pleading guilty and have been replaced by members of the County Board of Education,” a September 2016 San Diego Union-Tribune article stated when McCann was elected President of the school board after the corruption case was finalized.

McCann and Aguirre are facing off in a special election runoff on July 1st to replace former County Supervisor Nora Vargas who resigned in January.

McCann garnered 42.4% of the vote in the April 8th Special Election, with Aguirre ending in seconds place with 32.2% among seven candidates who filed to run. Since no candidate received a majority of the votes, a runoff election must be held.

The candidate who wins will leave a vacancy in their mayor’s seat, leaving their replacement to be selected either by appointment of the remaining members of their respective City Council, or by a special election.

McCann is the Mayor of Chula Vista and a Commander in the US Navy Reserves. Aguirre is the Mayor of Imperial Beach and is a conservation nonprofit executive.

The special election runoff is July 1st.