Frank Lopez: Resign or Recall and Consequences or Recriminations
The official biography on the Vista City Council website describes Councilman Lopez as:
"Council Member Tem Frank Lopez, Jr. was born in nearby Bonsall, California and raised in the City of Vista. Mr. Lopez has been a local business owner in downtown Vista since 1970.
Elected to the Vista City Council in 2004, Frank Lopez is the first Latino elected to Vista city government. Prior to his council appointment, he served on the Vista Planning Commission from 2001 to his appointment to the City Council. Frank’s political interests go back to his upbringing and his belief that to positively impact a community, one needs to become involved at the local level.
Frank Lopez is involved in many local community activities and organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Vista Village Business Association, the Lions Club and the Kiwanis Club. His priority list includes his top priority of Public Service and, in addition, Vista’s Downtown Redevelopment Project, programs benefiting Vista’s senior and youth populations and enhancing Vista’s quality of life.
Due to their community involvement and activities, Frank and his wife Mary, received the Citizen of the Year award. They have been married 42 years and have a son and daughter and three grandchildren."
How does a part of nearly every civic organization and a Citizen of the Year become the center of such a controversy? Is his accusation that the rest of the council and the mayor have made just as serious breaches of ethics and, possibly, law a valid reason that either he should be left alone or they all should be removed?
When are problems with the governance of personal business, a reason that an elected official needs to resign or be recalled? This is the central question that has arisen around Vista City Councilman Frank Lopez. Councilman Lopez clearly feels that he is the victim of unfair persecution and is out to bring down those he feels are after him.
The community is becoming more and more polarized and adamant whether or not Councilman Lopez should be left alone, resign or be recalled. Councilman Lopez feels that unless he is convicted of an infraction that legally requires he step down, he doesn’t have to.
If he does have to step down without such a conviction, he asks, why doesn’t the rest of the city council have to step down as well. Councilman Lopez maintains that they have known about and deliberately hidden knowledge that Councilman Bob Campbell’s lost of his residency in Vista and is, therefore, illegally remaining on the city council.
These Records are taken from a journal that has been kept during the Vista Tea Party Patriots research into Councilman Lopez.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010: Councilman Lopez: You have no right to judge me, because you are not legally part of the city council.
Tonight the city council of Vista, California, in its brand new and beautiful city center had one of its saddest moments. The situation is one, where many who are upset with the federal government and demand that it clean up its act, are suddenly confronted with a situation where the elected official is someone they know, and in many cases grew up with.
At the end of the city council meeting the members of the city council took up a resolution to reassign various city council members to jobs representing the city in regional organizations. The end result was that no new assignments were made, but Councilman Frank Lopez was removed from all his appointments by a vote of 4-0, Councilman Lopez did not vote. Each of his fellow Council members and the Mayor have called for his resignation.
Councilman Lopez maintains that he is being removed for political reasons. The Mayor and City Council maintain it’s a matter of ethics. In return, Councilman Lopez responds that the only thing he is convicted of is a misdemeanor that does not require him to step down and that the city council are themselves guilty of infractions, at least, if not more serious than his.
After Councilman Lopez was stripped of his representative positions, an open discussion period was held for Vista citizens to address the council. The Vista Tea Party Patriots, Mr. Gene Ford, Ms. Villasenior-Telles and a realtor, who was involved in one of the questioned transactions, spoke in favor of resignation or recall. A number of friends of Councilman Lopez spoke and delivered two messages to the council: they have known Councilman Lopez for a very long time and trust him, and the council should judge not unless you they be judged themselves.
At the end, Jesus Magellan gave the council a body of documents and informed the council that a criminal complaint had been filed with the District Attorney’s Office against Councilman Bob Campbell, the Mayor and the city council. The complaint accused Councilman Campbell of having ceased to be a legal resident of Vista and illegally continued as a member of the City Council. Mr. Magellan said the complaint also accused the entire city council and mayor of having known that Councilman Campbell was illegally continuing as city council member and having deliberately hid it from public knowledge.
Councilman Campbell relied that he had moved because his wife is fatally ill and could not remain in their house in Vista. That ,because of his wife’s illness, he sold his house in Vista, bought a house in San Marcos where his wife is able to live more easily and he then leased his former house in Vista and lives there to maintain his residency.
Councilman Lopez then turned to Councilman Campbell and said that he, Councilman Lopez, had personally been watching Councilman Campbell’s house and that Councilman Campbell was lying. That Campbell was always at the San Marcos house and, in fact, was not living in the leased house in Vista, that he was not a resident of Vista and that any and all actions by the city council were invalid because of that.
The issue now becomes a general question of what indeed are the limits of behavior before a city council member, a mayor or any elected official needs to step down. If the accusations made against the council and mayor are also true, do they also deserve to be recalled?
Is the action of Councilman Lopez simply a means to gain retribution or a reasonable statement of, “Hey, is my behavior any worse than yours.” After all, if the accusation by Councilman Lopez is true, he probably also knew about Councilman Campbell’s hiding his lack of residency as well as the rest of the council and the mayor. What does the law say and what should we as citizens make of it. More next week…
Tuesday, September 28, 2010: Vista Tea Party Patriots City Council Meeting Statement
At the city council meeting Kenneth Happel spoke on behalf of the resignation or recall of Councilman Frank Lopez. The remarks are simple (This is what I remember of what I said):
“Mayor and Council, I represent Vista Tea Party Patriots. I have been approached by very many of our members about the resignation and recall of Councilman Lopez. We have sent a review of the disclosures about his situation to our members and called this weekend asking for their advice about my comments tonight. The results of the calls were 40 to 3 - Recall to “I don’t know”. In the months of talks at our meetings, there has been exactly one response in that disagreed with the following comments. I believe I represent at least three hundred Vista citizens in these remarks.
We have made our own study of the problems around Councilman Lopez's situation. We believe that Councilman Lopez was indeed singled out by Hispanic activists that are his political advisories. These advisories have publicly described the Vista City Council’s actions as creating a “new Apartheid in Vista.” We also believe that he has generally tried to do his best for Vista as part of the council. We find it strange, as a conservative group, having to ask a man to resign who has been a power in resisting divisive culture and race based politics.
Having said that, the accusations of his enemies would not have gained ground if there had not also been a serious problem with the Councilman’s demonstrated lack of ethical governance in his business, a serious question as to a conflict of interest and a conviction by guilty plea about keeping his legal and moral obligations to his employees. This leads us to ask Councilman Lopez to resign or, I believe, he will be recalled.“
The following formal statement was distributed to the city council after the above remarks were made.
To the Community of Vista,
The Vista Tea Party Patriots are part of a tea party movement that:
(1) Stands for political accountability,
(2) Openly and nationally supports the replacement of elected officials who will not provide the necessary transparency for a constitutional republic of citizens to hold them accountable, and
(3) Champions limited constitutional government with an emphasis on the support and concentration of power in local jurisdictions, where citizens can have the most effective direct influence on the powers that control so many aspects of their lives.
At our meetings, we have consistently supported Councilman Lopez’s right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, stated that he deserves our benefit of the doubt and have expressed disgust at the posters depicting him as a criminal behind bars.
We have also known that many of those driving the effort to find a way to remove Councilman Lopez were and are clearly motivated by their desire to remove his conservative leadership in the Hispanic community and his unifying voice on the city council. Why? So these same people can press forward their own racially and culturally divisive political agendas and increase their individual status in the Vista community.
However, none of those efforts to unseat Councilman Lopez would have gained much ground if there was not, at the same time, abundant evidence that Councilman Lopez has demonstrated an unexplained lack of fiduciary responsibility with respect to his obligations as a business owner and employer and, to some degree, as an elected official.
Mr. Lopez’s financial problems clearly started a long time ago and he has not resolved them over a ten year period. He has clearly had an extraordinarily difficult interaction with the various state and federal tax institutions.
However, it is exactly the fact, that the same pattern has continued for a decade that makes it very hard to believe, after more than 650 checks bounce, that Councilman Lopez never had knowledge that a check being written was fraudulent at the time of its writing.
While the Councilman or his spokesperson is quoted as saying the Councilman has always freely met these obligations when he became aware of them, the record indicates that not all were paid when presented and some were apparently only paid under court order and not voluntarily.
During this same period Councilman Lopez endangered the safety of his employees by not meeting his legal obligation to pay workman’s compensation insurance fees, so that his employees were not covered for the cost of injuries that could have happened on the job in his restaurant. The fact, that there was no employee catastrophe, is a matter of luck rather than governance and, therein, lies the problem.
Councilman Lopez has his seat on the city council because we entrust him for the governance of our city and its $118 million dollar budget that we pay for: Whatever the liquidity problems of Councilman Lopez’s business, there was enough liquidity to gamble away $56,000 while saying that there was no money available to cover the obligations he was making with the checkbook,
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Councilman Lopez’s decade long problems meeting fiduciary responsibilities to his employees is, in my opinion, demonstration of an inexcusable lack of judgment and ethical governance, and
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The failure to meet the legal obligations to report income as an elected official, the provision of four checks as proof that a pattern of six hundred and fifty is invalid and the unwillingness to provide clear transparency into his financial relationships, lead many in the community to realize that the issue of transparency and the issue of community trust in the Councilman’s character will not go away.
It is with real sadness that it seems that the best way for Councilman Lopez to continue to contribute his many talents and rich love of people is to resign and leave his people with a legacy of his greatness rather than a legacy of his forced removal from office.
Kenneth Happel
Vista Tea Party Patriots “
Sunday, September 26, 2010: A last request to Councilman Lopez for clarification and an offer to help restore his name if there was mitigating evidence.
After emailing our members, I sent a copy to Frank Lopez.
“From: Kenneth Happel [mailto:kmhappel@cox.net]
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 7:57 PM
To: 'flopez@cityofvista.com'
Subject: ALERT: Asking for response about Councilman Lopez
Dear Frank,
I said at the Village Café that I would tell you if I came to a decision about all this. As I said, at the time, this won’t go away unless you go completely transparent. In the last week, the number of people from my tea party I that have spoken to and who have expressed their support for your resignation has become overwhelming. I am very sorry.
I think you have tried to do your best as a councilman and you are probably a great man. I tried to find the background behind what has happened and indeed it is clear that the initial effort was led by a cadre of progressive activists. In time, however, those initial leaders were replaced by a much broader piece of our community. Unless there is some really illuminating specific answer to all this with hard evidence, I think resignation may be the most honorable way to leave office.
Here is an email that I sent to my tea party members tonight that lists what seems to be known. I am offering you a chance to respond before Tuesday. If we can refute this with facts, if there is a counterbalancing truth, I will help you spread it. If there isn’t, I am afraid most of my members and I will help in an eventual recall.
Ken Happel
Vista Tea Party Patriots”
All the records that follow to the end of this post including my comments were sent with his email as support material.
Sunday. September 26, 2010: The Email to the Members of the Vista Tea Party Patriots. On the Sunday before the council meeting, the Vista Tea Party Patriots sent a review of the various disclosures about Councilman Lopez, the proposed public statement that was distributed and a general question to its members about actions to take at the council meeting. The email goes into six months of revelations by County Sheriff and District Attorney Staff that were published in the San Diego Union Tribune and the North County Times. Here is the text of that email: From: Kenneth Happel [mailto:kmhappel@cox.net] Dear Patriots, It is with a great deal of remorse that I find myself at a point where I believe that a man:
· Who has clearly spent years serving our community and championing the development of youth programs and the healing of cultural divisions within our community, · Who has been a leader in resisting efforts to divide Vista politics along both political and cultural lines, and · Who has been a long time friend and business colleague to so many here in Vista and within our tea party, has damaged the public trust in his character to a point where he needs to resign or be recalled. Unless there is some body of evidence that comes forward and changes the broad and rapidly growing desire for Councilman Lopez to resign, Vista Tea Party Patriots and those of its members, according to their own conscience, who agree will participate in the creation of a city-wide petition campaign for the Councilman’s recall. At this moment the vast majority of tea party opinion, a number I believe to be in the hundreds, is in favor of the Councilman’s resignation. My request is that you write me and present specific evidence if you believe there is any factual error in the following material. All of the material presented is based upon published articles that quote specific Sheriff’s sources. Those articles are included at the end in the “Detailed Background” section. I have heard from a great many of you, and wish to hear from each and every one of you before Tuesday if I can. Lynne and I will be calling and emailing tomorrow and Tuesday. I will also send this email to Councilman Lopez and intend to read the letter below at the city council meeting this Tuesday. Ken All the records that follow to the end of this post including my comments were sent with the above email to the members as support material. Tuesday, September 21, 2010 KMHAPPEL/GENE FORD: Mr. Ford, with a number of our members, approached me during the Monday 9/20 meeting of the tea party. He presented me with the information he had gathered. He asked us for our support in a recall effort. I tentatively agreed with the following conditions. I would write you, our members this letter with everything that is known, and that unless there substantial grounds for ceasing action or a slowing of the meteoric rise in the number of teas party members expressing a desire for resignation, I would participate in a call for the Councilman’s resignation and would commit our resources to participating in a recall campaign should he decline to do so.
She said the city's racial and geographic divisions resemble apartheid in South Africa, and that things must change. In Vista, the new estimates for 2010 show 43,325 Latinos and 42,960 whites or 98,000 residents, 44 percent Latino, 44 percent white, 4 percent Asian, 4 percent black and 4 percent other. Spurred by a rapid influx of immigrants, Escondido and Vista both passed legislation in 2006 that critics characterized as anti-immigrant and possibly anti-Latino. That means that Frank Lopez voted for this legislation that Fredi Avalos calls anti-Latino. This is, I believe, the reason that the effort to find a way to remove Councilman Lopez was started. To insure that they could call for the adoption of measures that they could not sell as long a Councilman Lopez was there.] "... Any other allegations, including intent to write bad checks, this was thoroughly investigated and no wrongdoing was substantiated," he said. "There is no one who has stepped forward, nor has the investigation shown that anyone was not paid." He provided copies of four paychecks made out to a former employee, Patricia Johnson Lopez, who had alleged in a North County Times interview that her paychecks from Casa Linda routinely bounced in the late 1980s and employees often had to wait to get their money. Johnson Lopez is no relation to the councilman or his wife. Frank Lopez said Friday that the four checks showed that Johnson Lopez was "paid promptly and none of the checks bounced."
San Diego Superior Court Commissioner Lee Witham sentenced the couple [Councilman Lopez and his wife Mary] to one day in jail, which will be satisfied by a "book and release" at the San Diego County Central Jail on Nov. 14. The couple must also pay a $12,000 fine and each perform 120 hours of community service. San Diego County sheriff's investigators were looking into allegations that [Councilman Lopez] and his wife had [actually] issued more than 650 bad checks [instead of the 200 bad checks known about in June] to employees at the restaurant between 2004 and 2009. While issuing the bad checks, the couple lost more than $56,000 [in] at least one area casino, and were regulars at several others. Lopez also has a string of federal and state tax liens that amount, with interest and penalties, to at least more than $150,000. This on-line Union Tribune article is by Aaron Burgin whom I had talked with earlier.
"This is an oversight," he said. "As Mr. Lopez has done throughout his life, if he owes people money, they get paid." Clay added that the payment comes, though not as quickly as some might hope. Court records show Frank Lopez has been sued at least nine times in small claims court during the past decade for allegedly failing to pay debts. In each of those cases, the debt was eventually paid ---- some only after the court ordered it. Records show Lopez also has several state and federal tax liens against his property. [Councilman Lopez’s attorney, ] "There's no relevance between being underinsured for purposes of workers' compensation versus his ability to adequately serve his constituents," he said. "He's being unfairly treated by those in the Vista community who would like to see him resign." [This is nonsense. Labor Code Section 3700 requires "every employer except the state" to "secure the payment of compensation." Arguments of a good intention or good faith failure (there is no such thing though) to get the insurance will probably fail. There is no authority for excusing an employer for failure to carry the necessary coverage. (Hicks v. Ocean Shore R.R. (1941) 18 Cal. 2d 773, 778, 6 Cal. Comp. Cases 275.). So that is abundantly clear, Councilman Lopez was not underinsured as his lawyer states. He failed to pay California’s legally required workman’s compensation insurance withholding fees. Each year you get a W-2 from each of your employers. The missing payments must have been filed as paid on the employee W-2s or there were no W-2’s, withholding or wages reported. You cannot opt out of “workman’s comp” as an employee. You have to file W-2s with workman’s comp. False statements or missing on W-2s are a felony in the IRS code. If a worker had been injured, they would have been left completely without help and would have had to sue Councilman Lopez for the compensation of medical costs and lost wages that would have come from the insurance he didn’t pay for. Seeing the Lopez financial situation, Councilman Lopez’s workers were/are very lucky they were never injured. Any serious injury would have been a life altering and devastatingly negative experience. There are only a few things morally and ethically that employers may not mess with and workman’s compensation and unemployment insurance withholdings are at the top of that list.] Reported August 12, 2010. In 2005 Councilman Lopez receives a $25,000 loan from a developer and fails to report it to the FPPC. In 2006 Councilman Lopez casts the determining vote, against staff advice, on a sewage board resolution about the developer’s project, In 2010 he amends all his FPPC filing to reflect the loan. In 2005 Councilman Lopez failed to report a $25,000 loan was made to Councilman Lopez in 2005 according to Joe Jaoudi of the Vista LLC, Cameron Glen Estates who made the loan. He failed to report the loan to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) as required by law (When a politician receives $500 or more including loans from any non-governmental source, they are required to report it. This is to make the potential for conflict of interests between the politician and the source of the money visible. Usually politicians, when faced with decisions involving a personal source of money to them, disqualify themselves and refuse to vote on such an issue to rule out there being a conflict of interest). The next year in an April 2006 council meeting, city staffers recommended denying a proposal by Jaoudi to hook up a 55 house parcel of land to the city’s sewage system so that it could be developed. In a later 2006 council meeting, Councilman Lopez made a deciding vote (3-2) in favor of the proposal made by Jaoudi and against the previous city staff recommendation (BTW, current city council candidate Ritter also voted in favor of that motion). The loan was collateralized or secured against Councilman Lopez’s property on February 22, 2007 by Cameron Glen Estates and Jaoudi says it remains unpaid and he is not pressing for repayment at this time. On August 12, 2010 Councilman Lopez filed amended FPPC documents reflecting the loan for the first time. On August 12, 2010 he filled amendments to his FPPC statements to include it. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_144366a4-374b-5279-9ede-d41aa5de5e8b.html - the updated filings are in the file: “Amended 700 2007, 2008, 2009.” Open the FPPC Amended Income Statements File
Sgt. Mark Varnau, with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department financial crimes unit, said the couple lost an estimated $56,000 at the casino between 2004 and 2009. Evidence suggests that the councilman and his wife were players at another casino, and therefore could have been net winners or lost more money, but the other casino did not cooperate with investigators. Sgt. Varnau said records obtained from the cooperating casino show that the couple logged about $740,000 in play between 2004 and 2009. That number doesn't represent the amount of money the Lopezes brought to the casino, but rather "coin-in" totals that included money from payouts and incentives used to keep playing. [a $1 dollar bet made a thousand times is logged as $1000 in play. The $56,000 is however a real number lost. It may represent the total money logged many times to create the $740,000 or it may represent a small part of a larger amount. Sgt. Varnau said the casino records suggest that Mary Lopez was the more active gambler: Her "coin-in" totals at the one casino were $541,913 between January 2004 and August 2009, while her "coin out" totals were $504,817 ---- a loss of about $37,096. Frank Lopez logged $197,880 in "coin in" totals during the same period and $178,967 "coin out" ---- a loss of about $18,913. The gambling records were uncovered as part of an investigation into the couple's finances that began in 2009 after employees at the Lopezes' Casa Linda Mexican restaurant on South Santa Fe Avenue in Vista complained about bad payroll checks, Sgt. Varnau said. Between 2004 and 2009, the Lopezes bounced more than 650 checks totaling more than $185,000, authorities said. The checks were eventually paid off. As one of five members of the City Council, Frank Lopez oversees Vista's $118 million operating budget. Each of the councilman's colleagues has called for him to resign; he has refused. Varnau said sheriff's detectives investigated the couple's business and personal bank records and found more than 45 businesses that had received bad checks, including two North County casinos, where a combined half-dozen checks had bounced. Casino officials declined to comment. "When you look at money being spent at a casino and find out large amounts of money are being gambled at a casino, it tends to show, at least to us, they certainly had the money to go gambling ---- why not have the money to pay and make sure their employees who rely on them to be paid are getting an income?" Sgt. Varnau said. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_bdfc72eb-88ae-57c3-8481-ed10b94ddb8c.html The civil suits add detail to the financial troubles of the councilman, which stretch back years and on Monday led three of his fellow council members to call for his resignation. Lopez's troubles appear to be associated with Casa Linda, the restaurant on South Santa Fe Avenue in Vista that he and his wife, Mary, have owned for 40 years. In at least four small claims cases since 2001, restaurateur Lopez failed to show up at the court hearing to defend himself. And in each of those cases, the legal battle ended with a judgment against Lopez. In 2004, in a case filed just a few months before he was elected to the Vista City Council, a judge issued an order to allow law enforcement officials to seize money from the restaurant cash register to pay off a debt, said the attorney for one vendor who sued. It was not clear Monday how the other five cases were resolved. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_62b8e7c9-d075-5591-8c19-0168dd27909c.html
The group says Lopez's financial troubles make him unfit to make decisions regarding taxpayers' money. Fredi Avalos, a member of the citizens group, said at a protest rally against Lopez on Tuesday that the district attorney's office is wrong not to prosecute the case. "There's an overabundance of evidence, but no political will," she said. The protest rally was attended by about six people with the citizens group who were overshadowed by about 25 of Lopez's friends, family members and supporters who turned out to defend the councilman. Many of his supporters spoke at Tuesday's council meeting, praising him for what they called his community service and patriotism. The supporter had posted a number of comments on Facebook that she was concerned about. It turned out the comments were actually addressed to me and were a request to meet and clear the issue up, but I had already talked to Councilman Lopez and I suggested that we talk it out at our next tea party meeting.] [That public conversation between supporters, Silva and our members happened at the next Vista Tea Party Patriots meeting where both the Councilman’s supporters and Silva Peters and husband were present. This meeting was another time where I clearly stated that the Councilman has the right to be given the benefit of the doubt and be considered innocent until proven guilty or until someone came up with hard evidence or a long term pattern of behavior indicating he is unfit to serve. I also reiterated that the felony charges matter was serious enough that we, as Vista citizens, needed to see if we could find out what the truth was.] Councilman Lopez recounted to me that his bad check problems stemmed from real estate transactions he made in the late 1990s and that got caught in the last real estate crash in San Diego. He said that a result of those real estate problems were fines and interest assessed by the IRS. He said that for a long time he ignored the problem and, that over time, those fines and assessments grew to significant amounts. He said that in recent times, he had tried to make a deal with the IRS but was unable to make the payments agreed to. He said thereafter the IRS repeatedly put leans or levies on his bank accounts and removed all the money from them. He said, it was because of those leans removing the money from his accounts, that he did not know the checks he wrote were bad. He was very clear that if it had not been for the lack of money caused by the levies and the horrible economic situation since 2008, the bad checks would not have happened.] [We also asked him about the paying illegal workers with bad checks allegation and he responded with an explanation that “he did not know the worker was illegal” because he had hired him after the worker’s had worked for Oscars, a previous employer. I say “the worker” because he clearly referred to a specific illegal worker that he had as an employee, who had received a bad check and who he did not realize was illegal. He mentioned nothing else. I told him that if that was the whole story he should go public with the evidence. That he is a public person and that by showing that these checks were written after these seizures of funds, his name would be completely cleared. I reported all this to my tea party group in the first meeting thereafter.] This was shortly after Silva Peters originally told our tea party group about the issue and we started our own fact finding effort because the bad check charge is a felony, causes jail time, fines, restitution and mandatory expulsion from the city council if proven. The reporter informed me that his sources were from inside the inside the investigation and that there was a very large amount of evidence, but that the District Attorney might not prosecute the charges because criminal intent means proving Councilman Lopez set out to defraud his employees. His defense could be that he is the victim of events beyond his control or that he is an incompetent business man or both. Silvia Peters (who has attended our tea party meetings with her husband and who is a vocal conservative opponent of the Vista Teachers Association (VTA) and hated by VTA bloggers) who assisted the Vista Citizens for Responsible Government in an effort to find witnesses to the contention that Councilman Lopez made a significant number of bad payments to illegal immigrants. To my knowledge, this widely spread story has never been substantiated. The financial crimes unit obtained two search warrants to obtain the financial records of his restaurant from his banks, the California Community Bank and Pacific Western Bank, that revealed between July 1, 2004 and Dec. 1, 2008 92 bad checks for a total of $18,200. In obtaining the warrants sworn affidavits (perjury charges if false) were obtained that stated paychecks to his restaurant’s employees were routinely refused by his restaurants banks because of insufficient funds. Some of these refused checks were later repaid months late, some were not (also confirmed in the next source by Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Varnau).
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 7:18 PM
Subject: ALERT: Asking for response about Councilman Lopez
Reported September 19, 2010. Fredi Avalos, a member of Vista Citizens for Responsible Government, Professor at Cal State San Marcos and long term denigrator of Councilman Lopez and the Vista City Council’s policy, said the new data make it more crucial than ever for Vista's leaders to become more welcoming toward Latinos.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_b72b7760-d7da-57c3-83d7-e62efa123177.html
Reported September 17, 2010. On Friday, Lopez said the bad-check allegations were exaggerated all along.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_a2a4a0a7-e5b4-5087-9e26-a13afff28d7d.html
Reported September 15, 2010. Councilman Lopez and his wife plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing, between 2000 and 2008, to pay their employees workers compensation insurance at the couple's restaurant, Casa Linda.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/15/no-jail-time-frank-lopez-misdemeanor-case/
Reported September 15, 2010. Councilman Lopez’s attorney [Ward] Clay said the couple run a small business and may have been confused about the laws regarding the insurance program or who was supposed to pay it.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_40552e85-f6de-58ff-8c4a-40a78655232d.html
http://www.californiacondoguru.com/hoarticles/workmens.html
Reported August 14, 2010. Residents who attended Tuesday's City Council meeting to compel Councilman Frank Lopez to resign… [included Gene] Ford, residents Teene Miller and Velia Villasenor-Telles called for Lopez to resign.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_57e6d262-9a28-5908-874a-298381df1498.html
Reported August 7, 2010. While bouncing hundreds of checks over a five-year period to employees and local businesses, Vista City Councilman Frank Lopez and his wife, Mary, lost tens of thousands of dollars gambling at a North County casino, a sheriff's sergeant said last week.
Reported August 2, 2010. Frank Lopez, the Vista city councilman investigated by authorities for allegedly bouncing more than 650 checks from 2004 to 2009, was sued at least nine times over the last decade, apparently for failing to pay his bills, according to court records.
Reported July 31, 2010. the Vista Citizens for Responsible Government have started a campaign against the councilman, asking him to resign his seat.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_847e644e-18de-573d-b463-f92d042ebd26.html
KMHAPPEL: [I also had a phone conversation with Silva Peters, just after the Lopez conversation, in which she stated that she felt that she was being stalked by one of Councilman Lopez’s supporters and was considering harassment litigation.
KMHAPPEL: [During this time, We received a call from Councilman Lopez and my wife and I had breakfast with him at the Village Café.
KMHAPPEL: We talked to a Union Tribune reporter, Aaron Burgin who was the original reporter of the above information that was also covered in the North County Times.
Reported July 21, 2010. Councilman Lopez and his wife Mary were charged in June 2010 with misdemeanor failure to pay workers' compensation insurance for employees at their Casa Linda Mexican restaurant on South Santa Fe Avenue.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_482f703a-fecd-509c-b2bd-79536ada45ab.html
Reported May 14, 2009. The County Sheriff’s financial crimes unit conducted an investigation into Councilman Lopez’s conduct as an employer in his restaurant Casa Linda on Santa Fe Avenue after two waitress employees of Councilman Lopez complained about receiving bad payroll checks.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_7667221c-7522-5026-8e4f-c72043938be3.html
IRAN, EMP and President Obama's "Dr. Strangelove" Policy
or...
How He Decided to Give NATO to Russia,
Betray Israel, Empower IRAN and
Endanger Every Single One of Us in the Bargain.
Electromagnetic Pulse or EMP is a term you are going to hear a lot about. EMP weapons can be made by more than 30 countries and more are about to join the club. EMP weapons are called asymetric weapons because they cause far more distruction to our country than the weapon's size would indicate. In other words, it levels the distructive playing field on behalf of terrorists and rogue states like Iran or North Korea.
What is an EMP weapon? It is a small nuclear weapon that is exploded in space. During the detonation a very strong electromagnetic field is created. This field can destroy anything that makes, transports or uses electricity, that is electronic or uses electronic comonents and anything that can be damaged by strong magnetic fields like computer storage disks. Within limits, the higher the bomb is exploded the more powerful the effect and the wider its reach.
These are graphics from a new Vista Tea Party Patriots information sheet on EMP
more to come
The following are major background resources you can read and be well read on the subject:
Missile Defense & Space Independent Working Group.pdf
Congressional Research Office: 2004 EMP Report.pdf
Congressional Research Office: 2008 EMP Report Update.pdf
Force and Damage Assessments are from multiple sources:
Illegal Immigration And The Great American Melting Pot
The other night my wife and I were talking to a waitress in a local restaurant. She is a wonderful person and we have come to be good acquaintance through many dinners there. She is everything wonderful about waitresses. She knows and remembers us. She greets us like we we're long lost family and she takes care that we have a great time. After dinner, it was about closing time. She knows that we are active in our tea party and asked us about the tea party's views on immigration issues.
I explained that I grew up in San Diego. My parents grew avocados and, during the days of the Bracero visa program, I got to know many workers. I grew up appreciating Latino culture. She and we laughed as I described going to the Mexican version of a debutante ball. The girl's would come out in white dresses and the formal neighborhood celebration that accompanied their formal entry into community life was lots of fun. She laughed when I shared about being told by a dad that if I wanted my voice to deepen, I should not look quite so interested in his daughter.
She told us about her celebration and we all shared a common moment of neighbors understanding and enjoying each other. She then asked if we were in favor of amnesty. I said no. She looked relieved. She then explained that she is against amnesty because she and her family immigrated here to become Americans. They immigrated to join our American culture (the culture, many European acquaintances I met living in Europe, were so fond of telling me doesn't exist). She has no doubt that she enriches our culture with her background. She also has no doubt that her cultural background is not diminished by being American first and having her background be a contribution to the mix of all our backgrounds.
She shared that she is dismayed that those, like her, who came here to be American, are now caught in the middle between Illegal immigrants and American citizens that are political activists for amnesty. Their actions and activities have created a widespread belief that all Latinos favor amnesty and support illegal immigration. She wanted us to know that that was not true and to tell our tea party that. I said I would.
She then completely amazed me. In one sentence she provided me with the answer to all those angry, hate filled people calling anybody against amnesty a racist, an oppressor or worse.
She said that when she came to America, she came to participate in the melting pot and the melting pot only works when you want to melt.
That her experience was that many illegal immigrants of today do not want to be part of our melting pot. That immigration activists are using the illegal immigration issue to divide Americans by race and culture. That these activist's brand of diversity is to support and encourage the destruction of the melting pot. That they are trying to sell mixing oil and water as being the same as a mix where each ingredient decreases and the whole increases.
She explained that because of the way these activist are portraying the issue, she is no longer free (because she is afraid of retribution by activists) to express her opposition to amnesty and she is starting to experience people who are furious that the immigration issue is being cast as one of prejudice and race, when she doesn't see it that way.
I later reflected about what she said. She is right. The whole point of acting as if racism is the issue is to cause a racial divide in Americans. When everyone is completely angry about the racism issue, the actual issue of legal immigration and the working of the great American melting pot is lost in the noise. Further, the whole American melting pot itself is destroyed.
I am going to make a pin and give it to her. I suggest that each of you who is a legal immigrant (from anywhere including Latin America) or is the descendent of a legal immigrant wear one too. Maybe, by expressing our belief and trust in our melting pot we can defeat those who would like it to go away for their own purposes.
She asked me if there was some way she could quietly let people know that she is legal and proud of it. I am having the following pin made. You can buy one in our store. She will get her's free.
With thanks to our waitress, a patriot.
Ken and Lynne
National Tea Party Patriots Policy About A Tea Party Based Political Party
Because I have received many questions from members and others about the formation of a national political party based upon the tea party movement, I am copying here the response to the question by the national coordinators of the tea party movement.
Dear Fellow Tea Party Patriots,
There is much talk of the formation of a third political party based on the tea party movement. In Florida, a Democratic operative with absolutely no connection to the tea party movement has filed papers to form a third party called the Florida Tea Party. He has issued legal threats against local tea parties demanding that they cease using the name "Florida Tea Party."
Tea Party Patriots is issuing this statement in order to make it clear that we are not associated with this, or any attempts to form a third party. Additionally, we believe that such efforts are unproductive and unwise at this time. The history of third party movements in this country is one of division and defeat. We believe that it is instead time for all Americans to rise up and demand appropriate reform within their own parties. The mechanisms exist for citizens to participate in their parties, and to drive their parties in the right direction.
The Tea Party Patriots encourage all citizens to get involved in the party process, and to reshape their parties into something in which they may once again believe. This country does not belong to any one party, nor does it belong to the career politicians. This country belongs to the citizens. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "We have given you a republic madam, if you can keep it." The founders knew that it would be our sacred obligation as citizens to get involved, and to work hard to hold on to this great nation. We have much work to do, and future generations will look back in judgment. We hope you will join us in preserving the republic.
You are the heart and soul of the Tea Party Movement. Thank you for promoting the causes of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets with us!
Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,
Debbie Dooley, Mike Gaske, Kellen Giuda, Ryan Hecker, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, Billie Tucker, and Dawn Wildman
Documents To Download
All our documents are provided in Word 97 - 2003 Format (doc) or Adobe Acrobat (pdf) Format.
PHONE CALL MATERIALS: VISTA SCHOOL BOARD RECALL
STEP ONE: DOWNLOAD THE CALL WORKSHEET AND PRINT IT
It is in PDF format, please Click here to download Adobe Reader for free.
Download the Call WorksheetSTEP TWO: DOWNLOAD THE CALL SCRIPT AND PRINT IT
The script is in PDF format, please Click here to download Adobe Reader for free.
Download the Phone ScriptSTEP THREE: DOWNLOAD THE CALL TRAINING SLIDES PART ONE.
It is in POWER POINT or PDF format, please Click here to download Adobe Reader for free.
Download Slides: Part One ( PDF ) Download Slides: Part One (PPT)
STEP FOUR: WATCH THE TRAINING VIDEO: PART ONE at he following link...
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7107070
STEP FIVE: EMAIL: kmhappel@cox.net in the subject area say phone numbers
and they will be sent back to you before the next morning.
STEP SIX: FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS TO MAKE CALLS
STEP SEVEN: MAIL ONE "RECALL THANK YOU LETTER" ALONG WITH ONE
RECALL PETITION FOR EACH BOARD MEMBER (THREE
PETITIONS TOTAL) TO EACH PERSON THAT SAID, YES, THEY
WOULD SIGN THE PETITION.
Here are the recall thank you letter and the petitions:
Chunka Recall Petition
Jaka Recall Petition
Lilly Recall Petition
We are still working on whether we have to pick up the petitons.
An Open Letter to the President and His Supporters About Racism
An Open Letter to the President, the Democratic
Party and FORMER President Carter About Racism
After the protest in Washington DC on 912, my wife and I went to Ford Theater and had a chance to revisit this symbol of racism's ability to survive and infect our national consciousness, even at the moment of its greatest defeat. For Lincoln, the question of abolition was clearly not the main issue of the war, but Frederick Douglas clearly made him see its importance by doing the one thing a person can do that cannot be disputed or twisted by those with sane minds and any whisper of charity in their hearts. He offered his people to serve the country. He demanded that Lincoln acknowledge the cost, and the debt of their blood, owed those soldiers by the Union and then the whole country. That intemperate, impassioned and probably self-justified man, who shot the President, ruined our chance to see if Lincoln would have passed that test of his integrity and honored that debt.
President Obama, I don't know what it is like to be black in America because I am not black. I don't know how much pain and self doubt came by way of race. But I do know that I and millions of white, latino, asian and native American people all came to realize the fundamental evil of prejudice, confronted their own and committed to ending prejudice and making the words of our founding fathers transcend their ideals and become a commitment in reality.
There was a time when I stood on the steps of the Nashville Courthouse and joined a lone lady who was protesting and shared the threats and insults of passers-by. Across the street is a school, Hume Fogg Technical High School. The kids were watching out a window and jeering. A black student leaned out the window and yelled "right on" before being pulled inside by other students punching him. A lone girl, frightened, stood flat against the glass with her arms over her so that no one inside the school could see that in the notch of her arm she made a hidden peace sign with her other hand to let us know she was with that lady and I on the courthouse steps. She happened to be white.
The lady on the steps thanked me for stopping and standing there with her and told me to get out of town before dark, that the threats I received from bystanders, I should not discount. She then laughed and said she knew her own way home. The fact that she was black was unimportant then and is unimportant now. So why do I mention it?
I don't know President Carter and he doesn't know me. Yet, I have listened as he and then Democrats in Congress and members of your party have described my motivations and the motivations of fellow tea-party protesters as racist. President Carter clearly stated that those engaged in protest against your policies, and I am one of them, were doing so because of a deep seated assumption that you are incapable, or unfit in some way to be President because of your race. I want you to know on my personal oath, on everything I have ever stood for that this is untrue. I do not think you are incapable or unfit to be President because of your race. My opinion is that you are not only one of the brightest and most charismatic Presidents we have ever had, but I think you know exactly what you are doing and are capable of achieving it if we who disagree are unable to win the discussion.
What I have heard about your community activism reminds me of myself in college. I used to stand in the doorways of supermarkets and ask people not to buy grapes. Millions of Americans of all races helped Cesar Chavez support a strike started by a union populated mostly by immigrants from the Philippines. As a guy named Kenny Denman said to me once, "after the protest you can cut your hair, put on different clothes and join the enemy, I can't." Yet, my most endearing memory from that period was working to get breakfasts donated and I heard a friend of mine say to another of his friends, "he a blue-eyed brother."
When I was in Europe, I came to understand what Kenny Denman said to me. I worked in defense and at a given moment was targeted. The last year I was there, there were 109 attacks on my person and workplace. I had to use a random clock to insure I never left a building at the same time or took the same route to anywhere. Even though I used extreme caution I was nearly killed and when I came home I was like a deer in headlights. Anyone on the street could be the next attacker. Maybe that's what it’s been like in your experience. If we do share that experience, I experienced my part protecting you and all Americans.
So Mr. Carter's words were a torture to me in their cruel intent to use something as horrible as racism as a way to demean an opponent or express a vast disdain for and underestimation of the American people. I don't believe your approach to solving our problems is the one I want for our country. But I am delighted that our country has proved it is colorblind when it counts. Yet, your administration may go down in history as the one that re-divided the country on race. Not because of you, but because your own political party and its supporters are willing to use race as a weapon against your own people. And that's the point, President Obama, I am also one of your own people. I am an American. I don't deserve this any more than you do. But you can stop it in an instant if you will.
I am asking you to clearly and unequivocally tell your party to stop this use of race as an attack upon your opponents. There are just as many people that are opposed to your policies as there members of the Democratic Party that have passed the race test and offered their lives to create the opportunities, that you are the fulfillment of. It is just in the, numbers. A majority of all races and whites of both political colors in particular, have faced that test and passed. Your opponent in the election and those who voted for him did not vote against you because of race.
I know that people have big mouths. Heck, the Ford Theater is a monument to the verbal cruelty that Lincoln faced from about everyone except his friend, Frederick Douglas. To date, because I read a bill my Senators and House Leaders clearly had not and dared ask questions they didn't like, I have been vilified by Democratic leaders and called a Nazi, a domestic terrorist, a right wing extremist and a threat to our nation by Janet Napolitano in her DHS memo. I have a legal gun, support the second amendment and am a member of the NRA, I am Christian of Catholic denomination and support pro-life causes, I have served my country as a civilian, I have a flag that says "Don't Tread On Me" and I am a member of the tea-party movement. All of which she mentions are indicators of violent group memberships and advises local police to watch people like me because of our high likelihood of being domestic terrorists.
The reality is that I go to church in a mission that was founded in 1789 and paid for by the King of France. President Lincoln gave it back to the Catholic Church just before he died. Our local services are in Vietnamese, Spanish, Samoan and English. I take communion to patients in my local county hospital. I work with prisoners in the brig at Miramar MCAS. My wife, an RN, and I, a certified emergency responder, have volunteered to be Certified Emergency Response Team to help our neighbors and the world in times of disaster. It is not just Democrats or your supporters that are volunteers or help those with problems.
After 300 applications for work, I am still unemployed. So I've gone back to school at 60 so I can work until I'm 75. My wife is an RN at 67 and has a job. We take care of my 94 year old mother who also takes care of us. We grow fruit and food and next year hope to sell some, but the water rights of smelt and salmon have reduced our town's water supply by 25% and your stimulus bill is going to eliminate our only reservoir and turn the San Luis Rey River, dry since 1940, into a salmon run. From where I sit, what's going on in Washington must seem as stacked against the average guy, as crazy, as unfair and as unresponsive as society and government did to you in urban Chicago. But I don't see it that way because of racism.
My wife is afraid that if I post his letter someone supporting you will come to our door and kill us. Ms. Pelosi’s televised comments can be thanked for that. I said to my wife that I lived with never leaving home at the same time, never traveling the same route, never using streets with manhole covers, calling in every time I left somewhere and every time I arrived so they knew I was ok. I asked her, "Do you think that if I was willing to face that overseas for my country that I am unwilling to face that here?"
These are just words but they may create something new, an understanding or prevent a calamity; at least, that is my hope. Those who kill, like John Wilkes Booth, won't be stopped by words anyway. I then asked my wife, "Are you willing to face the risk of trying to stop this constant use of race to incite opposition to free speech?" "Yes," she said. So I am posting this letter because I know I am not a racist and neither are you, and I do believe that our country is that important to you too. So please stop the political use of race by your party and its supporters before it does cause a calamity.
Signed,
Kenneth M. Happel, Lynne C. Welke and Katherine K Happel
Reprinted from www.our-republic.net and the Canadian Free press
How The Union's Political Machine Buys Our State Government
The Basic Problem: The Public Employee Unions Use Your Tax Money For Their Political Contributions Without Having To Ask You
From prison guards to police, public school teachers to city bureaucrats, anyone employed by the government are public employees and all public employees are paid by taxpayer dollars.
Public employees are forced by law (union shop) to join public employee unions and pay union dues or agency fees. The public employee unions have the right to automatically take those dues and agency fees and use them for state and local political campaigns and special interest legislation without having to ask union members for the money or what to spend it on.
The unions have created a way to force all Californians that pay taxes, to pay for their local and state political campaigns including the election of politicians who will do what the unions want and the passing of special interest legislation they support.
It’s this “special” power that creates the problems we now face in California and makes it impossible to improve our school system, fix our state's budget nightmare or secure the borders here, etc.
The hundreds of millions dollars the unions automatically take each year for California campaigns are used to elect “their” candidates, pass “their” initiatives, and bully and seduce politicians into voting for “their” agenda. Virtually every politician, Republican and Democrat, either gets union money to fund their campaigns or are too scared to stand up to the union agenda for fear of losing their next election when that union money is used against them.
What does the Union agenda include? Growing government, of course, by creating more government jobs, increasing their own pay, hiking their pensions and preserving lifetime health benefits, while we, taxpayers, are left holding the bag of literally billions of dollars in debt that will be paid off through huge tax increases or drastic cuts in services, or both, as is happening now.
It’s a vicious cycle, a corrupt political machine, that is bankrupting California. This how the vicious cycle works:
The following is a reprint of an article by Ken Mettler published in The Bakersfield Californian, Monday, November 2, 2009.
The Solution: State needs to ban public-employee unions from politics
The California tea party movement have a solution to create meaningful political reform in California. It is to reduce the disproportionate power of the public employee unions, which form the largest special interest in politics by far.
For example, the California Teachers Association alone has 300,000 members, each of whom are required to pay union dues of approximately $1,000. Out of these dues, approximately $300 goes for political campaigns -- a total of $90 million each year. Of course, the argument will be made that the public employees are not forced to make the contributions and can "opt-out," but that is only applicable to federal elections and campaigns.
Elected officials rarely have the guts to stand up to the unions, because anyone who dares gets voted out on the next election. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to take them on in 2005 with five initiatives that would have reduced the power of the unions and the size of government. The unions spent over $100 million defeating them all.
The result is that the public employee unions represent a permanent special interest group, advocating for more and more government, regardless of the consequences. Public employees were given the right to unionize in California in 1978, and it has gone from being a golden state with unlimited opportunities to bankruptcy. No matter how much noise we make about the issues facing California, the politicians will never listen because the vast majority, all the Democrats and most Republicans, are elected with the support of the public employee unions, and the rest are scared.
The solution is an initiative (i.e. a ballot proposition taken directly to the people), prohibiting the government from collecting union dues from public employee paychecks if any portion of the dues goes toward politics. Stated another way -- simply level the playing field by forcing the unions to get campaign contributions the way everyone else has to do it, by convincing someone to write them a check.
It is simply wrong for the government to use taxpayer funds to collect money out of the paychecks of government employees, which then ends up going right back into the political campaigns of the politicians who gave them that right in the first place. It is corruption, plain and simple.
The politicians in California will never support this type of initiative. Most of them have cut a deal with one or more public employee unions. The only way it will happen is if the people rise up, put it on the ballot, and then turn out to vote in large numbers. This would be historic, and would forever change the balance of power in California. The historic nature of a victory here would have a major national impact and circumvent corrupt politicians of both parties. This is a terrifying prospect for those power-hungry politicians who think that how we are governed is really none of our business.
We are committed to causing this to happen.
.