Does embattled Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez have a job?
It’s not an idle question and the answer carries serious policy implications.
It’s impossible to avoid the question after reviewing the campaign and financial disclosure reports filed by Lopez since she first ran to represent Ward 3 on the city council in 2020.
Last month, OC Independent published an article examining whether or not Lopez was hiding income, the question stemming from contradictions between the mandatory Form 700 personal financial disclosure reports she’s required to file as an elected official, and the Form 460 campaign finance disclosures she files as an office holder and candidate.
READ: Is Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez Hiding Income?
When she first launched her campaign, Lopez stated she worked as a “public health promoter” for Latino Health Access, a progressive non-profit that interprets its health access mission to include considerable political activity.
However, she does not list Latino Health Access as an employer on any of the subsequent Form 700s she has filed since then. At the same time she was listing Latino Health Access as her employer on her campaign finance reports in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Less than 24 hours after publication of our article pointing out her conflicting claims of employment, Lopez filed amended versions of those Form 460s in which she replaced references to Latino Health Access as her employer with “City Councilmember, City of Santa Ana.”
OC Independent has reached out to both Councilmember Lopez and Latino Health Access with questions about her employment there, but without any response.
According to our sources, earlier this year, during the three week period when process servers were attempting to locate Lopez to serve her with recall papers, a process server went to Latino Health Access, since she was listing the organization as an employer. An employee told the process server Lopez did not work there and had been terminated, before another Latino Health Access staffer cut the conversation short.
Form 700 filers are not required to disclose income from government employment, on the theory there is no conflict of interest. The only non-government income Lopez has disclosed was between $500 and $1,000 earned as a “contractor” for the United Way of Orange County in 2022 – even that was only disclosed a year later in an amendment.
The United Way of Orange County did not respond to an inquiry from OC Independent.
Last year, Lopez donated $1,000 to the failed council campaign of Manny Escamilla, one of her political allies.
Lopez identified her occupation as “consultant” to Close The Gap, a large 527 political organization whose mission is electing left-wing women to office. However, she has never disclosed income earned from Close The Gap on any of her Form 700 personal financial disclosure forms.
Close the Gap did not respond to inquiries from OC Independent.
Judging from Lopez’s own disclosures, it appears her income consists entirely of meeting stipends from serving on the Santa Ana City Council and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).
Santa Ana councilmembers receive $1,000 monthly stipend and a $500 monthly car allowance. OCTA rules effectively cap director stipends at $6,000 annually; Santa Ana estimates her annual stipend income from the OCTA to be between $1000-$2,000. In other words, Lopez is earning between $19,000 and $24,000 in annual stipend income – and her term on the OCTA Board of Directors comes to an end later this year.
If she is earning any income beyond her council and OCTA stipends, she has not reported it.
Lopez was renting a bedroom in a single-family home until being evicted March or April of 2022, after which she moved into the four-bedroom house of one of her political supporters, Chicanos Unidos co-founder Albert Castillo. Lopez has filed multiple affidavits of residency with the city stating that is where she lives, providing her voter registration information and driver’s license as validating documentation.
Castillos and Chicanos Unidos are active in Santa Ana politics, most recently as advocates for the draconian rent control law for which Lopez voted, and which is one of the reasons she is currently subject to a recall election.
Which raises the question of how much rent does Lopez pay to Castillo to live in his house?
It is not an idle question. As an elected official, Lopez has to pay market-rate rent. State law makes only narrow exemptions such as living with immediate family members or a committed romantic partner. Councilmembers cannot simply crash with a friend on a long-term basis.
OC Independent has e-mail questions to Councilmember Lopez regarding this situation, and allowed her ample time to respond. To date, she has not responded to any inquiries from OC Independent.
Furthermore, if a councilmember is getting discounted rent, then the differential with market rate rent must be reported as a gift – and there is a legal limit to the gift value an elected official can receive from a single source. Currently, that limit is $590.
Guidance from the state Fair Political Practices Commission is clear on these matters.
According to our research, it costs between $700 and $1,000 to rent a bedroom in a house in Lopez’s council ward. Indeed, there is currently a listing on Craigslist asking $500 a month to rent the “private portion of a living room” in a home near Santa Clara Avenue and Tustin Street.
In other words, the annual cost of renting a room in a private home in Ward 3 is between $8,400 and $12,000, or approximately one-third to one-half of her income.
In this respect, Lopez is in the same boat as other underemployed or unemployed Orange County residents who struggle to find housing they can afford. But those other OC residents aren’t elected officials who are subject to gift laws and disclosure requirements. Those laws exist for a reason.
Furthermore, Lopez’s landlord is actively engaged in political advocacy aimed at changing city policies in areas such as rent control and public safety.
“Common sense tells us elected officials with perilous personal finances are the most vulnerable to considerations that might remedy their situations,” commented long-time civic activist Tim Rush, who is chairing the recall campaign against Lopez.
“She’ll be voting on changing the council vote threshold on repealing or amending the city’s rent control law, and her landlord was a leader of the campaign for that rent control law,” said Rush. “There is at the very least an appearance of a conflict, and I think it is fair to ask whether or not Albert Castillo is discounting the rent Councilmember Lopez is paying to live in his house.”
At the moment, unless Lopez discloses how much rent she is paying, there is no way to know.
However, under the rental registry now being implemented, by the end of the year Castillo, as a landlord, will have to disclose the names of any renters and how much rent he is charging them.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Lopez was a member of the Orange County Fire Authority Board of Directors. She was replaced in that position in December 2022 by Santa Ana Councilman Phil Bacerra.
