By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large

A candidate’s lawsuit filed against the City of Chula Vista just two weeks before an election is legally premature and seems politically motivated to damage her opponent.

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who is running against Chula Vista Mayor John McCann in a July 1st Special Election to fill a vacancy on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, sued the City this week seeking documents related to McCann, including a letter he wrote in 2020 in support of a prison sentence reduction for a Chula Vista resident. 

Paloma Aguirre

 

Aguirre has mischaracterized McCann's letter as seeking a “pardon” from President Trump, but the letter was only addressed and submitted to the Department of Justice office that handles prison sentence reviews, known as the Office of Pardon Attorney, in Washington, D.C.

The letter sought a commutation -a reduction of a prison term- not a pardon, which forgives and erases a conviction.

Aguirre and her supporters have mischaracterized the letter in campaign attack ads as having requested a pardon from Trump in an attempt to link McCann with the controversial President.

The lawsuit filed this week claims the City failed to turn over documents requested under the California Public Records Act which requires public entities to search for and release documents to the public, but the lawsuit is premature because the City has not yet finished looking for responsive documents, according to the Chula Vista City Clerk who manages such requests.

The City has admitted that its official document retention policy only requires departments to save correspondence files for two years, so their computer system would no longer have a copy of the letter from four years ago.

Chula Vista City Attorney Marco Verdugo has recused himself from dealing with the lawsuit because he has endorsed Aguirre in her election against McCann, and Verdugo also shares the same political consultant with Aguirre.

Agencies have 10 days to respond to a request but the timeframe can be extended for 14-day periods to allow for complex searches or for requests that include multiple items. Requests can be legally extended for weeks or even months as long as the agency continued to conduct a search for responsive documents.

Under state law, a person may file suit to compel the release of documents improperly withheld by a public agency but not until after the request has been closed by the responding agency.

La Prensa San Diego has filed more than a dozen successful lawsuits against local agencies to enforce the disclosure provisions of the Public Records Act, including against the City of Chula Vista.

McCann supported the reduction of the remaining prison sentence of Adriana Shayota who was convicted of illegally relabeling energy drink bottles and fraudulent selling counterfeit versions of the drinks.

Trump commuted her sentence on the last day of his first term in office.

A statement from the White House Press Secretary on January 20, 2021, mentioned that Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations that day. The message included Shoyota's name, stating she "demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to rehabilitation" and that "Deputy Mayor of Chula Vista, California, John McCann, supports this commutation, among other community leaders."

McCann supported commuting Shoyota's 26-month prison sentence after she had already served more than half of her term in prison. 

The letter was written by McCann when he served on the Chula Vista City Council before being elected Mayor in 2022. At the time of the letter, McCann was serving as the Deputy Mayor, a mostly ceremonial designation selected by the City Council to designate which member would preside over meetings or carry out official duties in the absence of the elected Mayor.

John McCann

 

McCann added his name in support of Shoyota at the request of her brother, a local business owner who graduated from Bonita Vista High School which McCann also attended. 

McCann told La Prensa San Diego this week that he does not have a copy of the letter.

The lawyer who filed Aguirre's lawsuit is Ricardo Ochoa, a local employment attorney who works primarily for labor unions, most of which have endorsed Aguiree in the Special Election.

Ochoa also represented City Attorney Marco Verdugo during his election last year where he sued his opponent Bart Miesfeld over his residency and job title used on the ballot. Verdugo was also endorsed by the same labor groups now supporting Aguirre.

Aguirre's lawsuit will not be heard in court before the July 1st election.

McCann was elected Mayor of Chula Vista in 2022 after having served four, four-year terms on the City Council. 

Aguirre was elected of Imperial Beach in 2022 after having served one, four-year term on the City Council.

The Special Election runoff election is July 1st after McCann and Aguirre ended up as the top two candidates in the April 8th Special Election. The winner will serve the remainder of Vargas' term running through January 2029.