Posted on 04/23/2004 4:06:25 PM PDT by mgiorgino
Leftist Democrat Congressman Bob Filner has gotten himself into hot water. Filner has injected himself into a tenants dispute in a HUD housing complex owned and operated by the Catholic Church in San Ysidro, California.
Mike Giorgino, retired-Navy Commander and Republican nominee for Congress in CA-51st has stepped in to help the tenants.
Help Mike beat Filner by going to: http://www.Giorgino4Congress.com
By Kelley Dupuis, Staff Writer, The Star-News April 23, 2004
Chula Vista, Calf. - A civil war of sorts has broken out on the border, as some residents of the Villa Nueva apartment complex on Beyer Boulevard in San Ysidro charge that a bogus tenant’s association has taken over the complex in an allegedly-rigged election last December.
Meanwhile, two women residents of the complex have filed assault-and-battery charges with San Diego Police, claiming that when they were invited to attend a meeting of the newly-elected tenant’s council last winter, and called the validity of the election into question, they were attacked, punched and knocked down.
The Villa Nueva apartments are Section 8 federally subsidized low-income housing units with a variety of social services on site. The complex is owned and operated by the Catholic Church.
When representatives of the group calling the election into question took their concerns to Congressman Bob Filner this month, asking for an investigation, they claimed that Filner showed little interest in investigating either the allegations of election fraud or of assault and battery, but merely arranged for a meeting with a state mediator.
Frustrated in their attempts to persuade Filner to investigate, the opponents of the new Villa Nueva tenants board, a group calling themselves La Alianza De Vecinos Vision Padre Juan, took their case to Republican congressional candidate Mike Giorgino, a Coronado attorney who is running against Filner.
Giorgino has filed a formal complaint with the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, alleging election fraud, assault and battery, people claiming to be HUD officials who in fact were not, harassment of food bank employees, illegal inspections of apartments and allegations of bad-faith mediation brokered by Congressman Filner.
The trouble began last fall, when apartment manager Felipe Muro was asked by management to resign after some irregularities came to light, including the sub-leasing to his girlfriend of a free apartment that had been part of his contract.
“For whatever reasons, he was asked to leave,” said Juventino Solis, an apartment resident who speaks for La Alianza or “the alliance,” the group opposed to the new tenant council. “Once he left, and he got a compensation package and everything, he came back claiming he had been fired. He had anger toward management, so he decided to start riling up the people. He wanted to get back at management through the tenants.”
Tenants did indeed turn out to protest Muro’s dismissal, including Solis.
Filner got involved in the protests, taking up Muro’s cause as well and giving television interviews.
But then Solis said he changed his mind about Muro.
“I opened my eyes and looked at the truth,” Solis said. “He [Muro] had an at-will contract. He never answered the question of what he must have done, since he signed an at-will contract.”
A special election for a tenants’ association council was held Dec. 6.
Cristina Padilla, Manager of San Diego-based Adopt-a-Building, was invited to supervise the election. Solis claims Padilla, and her colleagues Oscar Picasso and Berta Pache, had an interest in seeing that friends of Felipe Muro were elected to the new council, and Solis thinks the election was fixed.
“There was ballot-stuffing,” Solis said. He also alleges that Padilla took the ballots at 2 p.m. on election day, four hours before the balloting was supposed to conclude, and carried them over the border to her home in Tijuana.
“She didn¹t say why she took the ballots, she just took them,” Solis said.
“She said, ‘I know what I¹m doing.’ That was on Saturday. By Sunday morning at 8 a.m., everyone knew who had won. Cristina just called the other group, the 15, and told them they had won. They knew who had won at 8 a.m. Everyone at the El Tigre grocery store nearby knew who had won. But the tenants didn’t.”
The board’s new president is Ignacio Villanueva. The Star-News attempted to interview Villanueva, but has had to postpone the interview for lack of an interpreter. Cristina Padilla did not return calls for comment. Neither did Congressman Filner.
Solis said his wife inquired about the validity of the election, and late in January received a letter from Padilla saying that there was nothing to investigate—everything had been done correctly, she claimed.
Then, the last Thursday in February, two residents of the complex who had questioned the election, Rita Haro and Eva Salazar, were invited to attend a meeting of the new tenant’s council.
“Rita Haro approached Oscar Picasso and told him in front of the whole group that there was voter fraud,” Solis said. “Everyone started booing her. Board members approached the ladies and started yelling and screaming.”
In the ensuing melee, Solis said, Haro was punched in the chest, and Salazar, who is 59 years old, was followed by a crowd as she left the meeting. The crowd was reportedly shouting abuse at her, and then she was shoved from behind and knocked down, breaking her glasses. She was taken to the emergency room and treated for minor injuries.
“That’s when we decided to go see Bob Filner,” Solis said. “And obviously he didn’t want to help. We told him about the ladies who had been assaulted, and that we wanted Padilla to hand over the votes.”
Solis said Filner had a very “no-reaction” attitude.
“He said, ‘All I can do is talk to a negotiator,’” Solis said. “He showed no concern with regard to our senior citizens’ being assaulted, never questioned to see how they were doing, never showed any interest in investigating what was going on. He only wanted to have a meeting with a mediator, and come to an ‘agreement.’ But come to an agreement about what? The evidence was overwhelming.”
Solis said he and his group were not interested in a mediation meeting, they wanted an investigation. Solis wrote to Filner explaining the situation, but said he got no response.
Meanwhile, the newly-elected board has claimed that there are maintenance and management problems at the apartment complex. The allegations were sent to Filner, who arranged a meeting with a state mediator on April 13.
Solis claims the allegations about maintenance and bad management come directly from Muro himself, as part of his supposed grudge against management.
“I asked him at the time, you’ve been manager for 10 years, why are you now blaming someone else when you¹ve been running the place?” Solis said.
“Filner hasn’t produced any evidence of bad management or bad maintenance.”
Nevertheless, when Filner arranged for a mediation meeting April 13, he sent a letter, in Spanish, to Rosa Placencia, secretary of the newly-elected tenant council. The letter told Placencia to be at Filner’s office two hours before the mediation meeting so they could discuss issues of mismanagement and failure to follow HUD regulations on the part of the management of Villa Nueva. The letter mistakenly fell into the hands of the Alliance, who declined to attend the mediation meeting.
“We felt mediation wasn¹t needed,” Solis said. “Investigation is needed. Something’s wrong here. Something’s fishy. He [Filner] meets with the other group two or three hours before our supposedly meeting with them and the mediators. We feel that he’s telling them what to say, how to say things. He’s not playing fair, and he has no concern with the community at all.”
WHAT'S EATING BOB FILNER?
From the Editor, The Star-News, Michael C. Burgess April 23, 2004
It shouldn’t pass without notice that this week’s top story doesn’t include a quote from Congressman Bob Filner in response to the serious allegations made by his Republican opponent and some tenants of the Villa Nueva complex in San Ysidro.
The fact is, Filner has failed to respond to any enquiries from The Star-News for some months now because he disliked the way he saw himself portrayed in our stories.
During the wildfires of last October, he phoned news reporter Kelley Dupuis with the intention of placing a story critical of the way media presented information about the possible evacuation of EastLake.
But the more interesting story turned out to be Filner’s admission that he found himself totally “out of the loop” and didn’t have much idea how to respond to such an emergency.
There was another Star-News exclusive that exposed the Tia Juana Valley Water District, a water district without water, that continues to absorb money from South County ratepayers although a growing number of these feel the district should be shut down.
Filner was one of the political figures who went on record in defense of the district. However, when we highlighted in our coverage the fact that the “waterless” district had Filner’s support, Filner was displeased with our pointing that out, despite the fact that he was already on record praising the district as a useful informational resource for him.
Other local politicians who had gone on record in support of the water district, including State Senator Denise Ducheny and Assemblyman Juan Vargas, raised no objection to our mentioning them, although in fairness to Filner, they were not mentioned in the headline.
But instead of defending his position, Filner responded by complaining to the Star-News’ editor and to its publisher. None of his veiled threats have been published here because they were all “off the record.”
Around that time, Filner fired his press secretary and, since then, the constant stream of press releases to The Star-News from Filner’s Chula Vista office has dried up. And, since February, neither Filner nor any of his staff have returned any calls from Dupuis.
Many Star-News readers who are dyed-in-the-wool Filner supporters may feel that this latest story involving Filner is somehow unfair. However, the full text of Mike Giorgino’s formal complaint to HUD was e-mailed to Filner two full days before we went to press and yet no response has been forthcoming.
The Star-News has no partisan position and no axe to grind when it comes to Filner. But, surely, officials need to be accountable to the electorate and the news media, even The Star-News, are part of that mechanism.
For more info on Giorgino v. Filner, go to: http://www.Giorgino4Congress.com
Au contraire. I'm proud to say that here in Illinois, we are an Equal Opportunity Political Party Corruption State. (EOPPCS)
In fact, the federal indictments come down so fast and furious that for most part the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times don't even bother anymore to put a 'D' or an 'R' after an officials name. And as to the cronies and hangers-on, they happily operate as bag men for both parties. It's true bi-partisanship!
Why heck, one mucky-muck in the IL Republican Party, Kjellander, did a deal with our boy Gov. Rob Blagojevich (D), that put 809,133 in his pocket. Oh and get this, this maggot Kjellander is the IL Chairman of Bush-Cheney 04!
Kindly excuse the use of the 'french' language.
I had no idea that my article had been posted on this bulletin board until today. I certainly did not end with a link to one of Mr. Giorgino's sites.
Until I'm run out of Chula Vista on a rail, The Star-News will continue to be impartial despite Bob Filner's refusal to give us interviews.
How can you like Filner? I've heard him be more than a little anti-Christian.
John Frink wrote: "Note: it slightly undercuts a paper's claim to impartiality when its article ends with a link to one of the candidate's sites."
I want it know by all that neither author Kelley Dupuis nor Editor Michael Burgess had anything to do with posting the above article and editorial on Free Republic. They were posted by me alone (after receiving the text from the paper by e-mail).
The Star-News also had nothing to do with the posting of those articles on my website, www.Giorgino4Congress.com. Nor did the Star-News contain a link to my website in the printed stories.
Sorry for any confusion, but the posting and linking of the Star-News pieces was my doing alone.
Mike Giorgino
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