Does Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez have a job? An income? And if so – why isn’t she reporting them?
Local elected officials and candidates for local office regularly file two different financial disclosures.
One of the Form 700, on which they disclose their financial information – employment, income, investments, gifts, real estate assets, etc. – to the public. These are filed when a candidate runs for office, then again when they assume office, then annually during their term in office, and again when leaving office. Income earned from government employment is exempt from disclosure based on the theory there is no financial conflict of interest between working for one government entity and serving on the governing body of another.
Form 700s are the primary tools used to flag actual or potential conflicts of interests, so elected officials know when to abstain from a vote, while also providing transparency for citizens to know their elected officials sources of income.
The other is the Form 460, which discloses their campaign finances: who is giving them money and how the money is spent.
Jessie Lopez has been filing both disclosures since she first ran for Santa Ana City Council. Taken together, they indicate Lopez has failed to disclose income for most of her term in office.
When Lopez became a council candidate in the summer of 2020, the only income she reported in her Form 700 financial disclosure was between $500 and $1,000 in salary as a “promotora” for Latino Health Access, a politically active, Santa Ana-based non-profit.
In other words, for 2021 and 2022 – her first two year in office – Lopez reported receiving no income, with the exception of between $500 and $1,000 earned as a “contractor” for the United Way of Orange County.
OC Independent has contacted the United Way of Orange County to confirm that Lopez was a paid contractor for them in 2022.
Even that was only disclosed in an amendment in March 2023 – more than a year after her original Form 700 was filed. Lopez filed the amendment several weeks after a recall campaign against her was launched.
Lopez’s Campaign Disclosures Contradict Her Financial Disclosures
However, Lopez’s campaign finance disclosures contradict her personal financial disclosures.
On six Form 460 campaign disclosure reports covering July 2020 through June 2022, Lopez claims to be a “promotora” for Latino Health Access. However, the only time Lopez ever discloses any income from Latino Health Access was in her initial candidate Form 700, which she filed in August 2020.
OC Independent has contacted Latino Health Access via to e-mail and voice mail to confirm whether she was employed by them during the period covered by the aforementioned Form 460s. We have not yet received responses to our inquiries.
According to sources, when process servers were trying to find Lopez in order serve her with recall papers earlier this year, a process server went to Latino Health Access and asked for Lopez, but was told she had been terminated.
This is not the only instance where Lopez discloses employment on one type of disclosure while failing to do so on her personal financial disclosure forms.
On June 23, 2022, Lopez contributed $1,000 to the council candidacy of progressive activist Manny Escamilla, a putative council ally. She gave her occupation as “consultant” to Close The Gap, a large 527 political organization whose mission is electing left-wing women to office.
However, Lopez has not disclosed any income from Close The Gap in her Form 700s.
OC Independent has contacted Close The Gap several times to confirm they employed Lopez as a consultant in 2022, but have not yet received any response.
On August 7, OC Independent e-mailed a series of questions pertaining to her employment claims, and discrepancies between and gaps within her Form 700s and the Form 460s filed by her campaign and Manny Escamilla’s.
Councilmember Lopez has not responded to our questions.
