Staff
This election season will be remembered for many reasons. First and foremost, it has developed in the middle of a global pandemic.
The national campaign is happening while the county is at its most polarized moment in recent memory, when racial and economic problems are compounded by the public health emergency of COVID-19.
In California, add catastrophic fires believed to be exacerbated by climate change. In our small town of Downey, a somewhat strange environment has emerged due to inaction from the Downey Unified School District regarding racism and sexual harassment within its schools.
Local campaigns have also been heated with an unethical and unequal battle to get a seat—or keep it in the case of the mayor—on the city council.
Two factions formed. One represents the “establishment” candidates from which officials that are currently in power appeared; Blanca Pacheco, current mayor of the city, Eric Pierce and Mario Trujillo.
On the other side, are the “independent” candidates: Alexandria Contreras, Carmela Uva and Catherine Álvarez.
The first three candidates have name identification along with economic and operational support, even from former city mayors.
Unequal fight
The competition for a seat on the council dais was totally unequal. The current mayor, Blanca Pacheco, deserves a separate mention for making use of government resources while running for re-election and falsely taking credit for accomplishments. Here are some examples:
Pacheco delivered information and updates on COVID-19 provided on the city’s official website as well as on social media.
Indeed, in the section of the website dedicated to posting videos of past city council meetings, from March onward, they began to post videos where the mayor delivers these updates.
In five months, from March to August, of the 35 videos posted in the section dedicated to City Council meetings, Pacheco appears in 22 of them.
This was overexposure of the Mayor during an election, with trivial topics such as “Mother´s Day Card Activity,” paid for with public funds.
Pacheco also boasted: “two successful food distribution events were held and 4,760 households were served”. She forgot to mention that in the first event, the city partnered with the County of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and in the second event, one of the organizers was Assemblywoman Cristina García.
She also touted the creation of the Residential Rental Assistance Program with a budget of $700,000 “to assist those that have been affected.” She forgot to comment that the city did not provide any funding for this program.
$500,000 was set aside from state funding, approved on June 9; $200,000 (HOME) of federal funding was approved on June 23.
An additional $250,000 (CDBG-CV) from federal funding was approved on October 13.
In fact, while they distributed 516 applications for this program, only 266 (51.5%) applications has been received, of which 122 has been approved, 119 have been delayed for lack of some information and 25 has been denied, according to information provided by the City Clerk on October 26
In conclusion, of the 266 applications received, only 45.8 percent have resulted in approved rental payments, which translates to approximately $170,000 of the $700,000 they advertised.
Lastly, the mayor claims the city has spent $95,000 on meals for seniors, however, $2,000 was donated from Downey Elks Lodge, $15,000 from LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and the rest came from federal funds.
Those of the establishment
Within hours of knowing the results of the local elections, there is no doubt that the group that belongs to the city’s political elite will have an unequal advantage over their opponents. Although of course, surprises happen.
Mario Trujillo, Blanca Pacheco and Eric Pierce, had resources that their opponents did not have during their respective campaigns.
Pierce edits a conservative local newspaper, The Patriot, known to many citizens as the “Official Gazette” of the City. This was affirmed when they were awarded a contract of $75,000 a year by the City Council to list legal notices.
Trujillo has many contacts he made during his career as a lawyer, and as a deputy District Attorney (a position he currently holds). He’s also raised almost $150,000 for his campaign.
