Should Santa Ana’s Sal Tinajero be charged with a crime?
Posted by Thomas Gordon on September 2, 2014
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero has decided to ramp up the election year campaign rhetoric yet again.
“Hey, if there’s something here we can investigate and prosecute, then we do it,” Tinajero said.
Tinajero is referring to property swap between the family of Mayor Pulido and business owner Rupen Akoubisn back in 2010 that is currently being investigated by the DA and FPPC.
But if Sal Tinajero is looking for criminal behavior on the Santa Ana City Council, he needs look no further than the nearest mirror.
Sal Tinajero was one of several Santa Ana City Council members who illegally took thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and then illegally voted to sweeten the pot for said donors.
The votes in question appear to violate Santa Ana Municipal Code section 2-107. The law prohibits members of the city council from participating in discussions and voting on matters benefitting campaign contributors who have contributed more than $250 during the year preceding the vote. The crime may be prosecuted at the discretion of the City Attorney who can choose between filing an administrative citation for an infraction or a misdemeanor charge that is punishable by a fine of $1,000 and 6 months in county jail.
Sal Tinajero went so far as to send out a press release in which he admitted guilt.
At tonight’s Santa Ana City Council meeting the public will ask the City Attorney to investigate and prosecute Sal Tinajero for his many flagrant violations of the law he’s sworn to uphold.
OC Political 
MuyGordo said
Can the schools Fullerton’s debate team competes with file complaints too? Tinajero cheats at that too.
Al Simmons said
This is so hypocritical it’s laughable!
First, Sal Tinajero, the guy promoting charging the mayor with a campaign donation crime, has already been caught for exactly the same thing He’s insisting on prosecuting the mayor, without benefit of any determination or opinion from any investigation!
Maybe Mr. Tinajero got a law degree when nobody was looking, but he seems to have made it all the way to a judgeship without even being elected to that position. Council members have the power to refer criminal actions to outside agencies to investigate, but they do not investigate things by themselves.
Neither the DA or the FPPC have opted to charge the mayor with a crime, but Sal is going to try and force the city attorney to file some type of charge? That really seems improper, not just because the city council has already referred it out to those agencies, but because there are known instances of criminal campaign contributions that have been treated differently by this council, particularly by the person leading this attack on the mayor.
Greg Diamond said
Having read Gustavo Arellano’s piece, which describes Tinajero (and Martinez) as having been confused by a vote that addressed more than one item, and then quickly asked for a special session with a new vote when they realized the error, this strikes me as just about the most ridiculous political attack that I’ve seen this year.
It also described an action taken when both were still allied with Mayor Pulido — which they no longer are. So is this selective and bizarre “they all do it” defense your announcement that you’ve decided to make common cause with Pulido — or are you hoping that people gloss right by the implications of the smear?
Thomas Gordon said
Greg Diamond. Say what you will. This was obvious and blatant and Sal Tinajero has lied to the voters more than once. He continues to take $$$ from those he calls gentrifiers , misses public debates while attending a baseball game, misses budget votes to go to a party and demonizes longtime residents for his own personal gain .
Sal Tinajero hasn’t done anything to make Santa Ana a better safer place to live for the majority of residents but has lined his own pockets and enriched his own family at the residents expense.
Your defense of such behavior is a reflection of your character or lack thereof….
Greg Diamond said
I did “say what I will,” and it addressed the topic of the article. You don’t rebut a single part of the argument — that they were confused, that they fixed it as soon as they realized the mistake, and that in any event it occurred while they were still under Pulido’s thrall.
Instead, you go off to make other allegations extraneous to the topic at hand, offering nothing but assertions that I have no means to examine. And then you close by attacking MY character.
People have warned me about you, Thomas; now it is more clear why. That’s less an attack on your character than on your coherence and cogency.
Thomas Gordon said
Greg Greg Greg
They weren’t confused, they knew what they did and expected no one would dare question their authority.
Sal has taken additional donations from the soccer clubs since his “confused” vote.
And he’s taken said donations from the same soccer clubs while not under Pulido’s thumb- so that’s really a moot point on your part.
And Sal was paid to attend that Special Meeting to fix his confused vote, so he further benefited financially.
And all this can be verified by looking at his Forms on the City Clerks website.
I apologize if you feel I wrong questioned your character.
But don’t you think it’s strange that you’re “warned” about me by anonymous sources and believe it?
What does that say about you and your sources?
Thomas Gordon said
I had to cut ties recently with someone who called me a liar for stating that the Santa Ana City Council was seeking a 700% raise. I was right and have the Council agenda to prove it.
That person chose to not apologize.
Greg Diamond said
I’d love to see your evidence, which I promise not to dismiss out of hand — and also to understand what the term “a 700% raise” means to you. Do you mean such an increase in their OVERALL compensation, or something like increasing a fee for which they receive compensation from $1 to $8?
Greg Diamond said
Are you saying that Tinajero would have cast a confused vote to that he could benefit by being paid to attend another special meeting?
Fine, you’ve now actually rebutted the substance of what I had said a month ago. I don’t have time to refamiliarize myself with the facts (e.g., whether the amounts in question exceeded $250), but hopefully someone associated with Tinajero, and the mortal threat he faces from Mike Gonzalez, can take up that gauntlet.
Tinajero caught at the Angels game while blowing off the Chamber of Commerce’s Candidates Forum - Orange County For Us said
[…] Picture courtesy of the OC Political Blog […]