The Baldwin Park City Council decided Wednesday to hire an attorney to represent a councilman being questioned about a conflict of interest complaint filed with the Los Angeles County District Attorney, council members said.
The council voted 3-2 in closed session to defend Councilman Ricardo Pacheco after he told his council colleagues he was contacted by the DA’s office and told to come in for questioning about a possible conflict of interest regarding business he conducted in South El Monte, according to city officials.
DA spokesman Greg Risling said in an email the office is reviewing a complaint about Pacheco. He declined to comment whether the office would open a formal investigation on the matter or what such an investigation would entail.
Mayor Pro Tem Susan Rubio and Councilwoman Cruz Baca voted against hiring an attorney to represent him when he reports to the DA’s office next week.
“Nobody even knows what the allegations are,” Cruz said by phone Thursday morning. “I thought it was too premature. If you get a phone call how do you really know what they want. That didn’t make sense to me.”
Rubio echoed Baca’s sentiments in a statement where she said the DA just wanted to ask Pacheco “a few questions” and she wanted to wait until after that meeting before hiring an attorney.
Pacheco did not return phone calls requesting comment.
Councilwoman Monica Garcia said it was not yet clear whether the potential investigation would be a civil or criminal case, but the council was advised that if it becomes a civil matter, and the council had declined to represent Pacheco, he could end up suing the city.
“I think (that would be) a greater liability,” Garcia said. “I voted to approve his request for representation until we get confirmation whether this is a civil or criminal case.”
Garcia and Councilman Manuel Lozano said the complaint stems from Pacheco serving in two public positions at the same time.
The longtime councilman worked part-time for the city of South El Monte as a project administrator between June 2014 and August 2016, according to South El Monte officials. Pacheco, who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, earned $70 an hour and was responsible for managing contracts for city projects, according to city documents.
In September, several residents and business owners in Baldwin Park began raising questions about Pacheco’s employment in the city after former South El Monte Mayor Luis Aguinaga pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a city contractor.
In July, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed Aguinaga and another unidentified city official from South El Monte participated in a bribery scheme spanning seven years, for most of the time that he served as mayor.
Baldwin Park resident Danny Damian said the DA’s office contacted him last week asking how he obtained documents relating to Pacheco’s work with a contractor in South El Monte and his approval of a contract with the same contractor in Baldwin Park.
Damian and business owner Greg Tuttle, who often criticizes Pacheco and other council members, have circulated invoices, city reports and meeting minutes at South El Monte and Baldwin Park council meetings that suggest Pacheco worked with construction company Gentry Brothers, Inc. in South El Monte as a project administrator and voted to approve a Baldwin Park project to Gentry Brothers in 2016.
The invoices, which were submitted to South El Monte by Infrastructure Engineers, also known as Advanced Applied Engineering Inc. and AAE Inc., seek payment for work that involves finalizing contract documents with Gentry Brothers and meeting with Pacheco to discuss the work and coordinating with both the contractor and the councilman.
“This has happened to other elected officials in the San Gabriel Valley, so hopefully everything turns out to be OK,” Lozano said. “It’s a political attempt to discredit Councilmember Ricardo Pacheco and it’s unfortunate.”
In a phone interview last year, Pacheco said he never worked for Gentry Brothers or Sid Mousavi, CEO for Infrastructure Engineers.
Infastructure Engineers, which was the focus of an FBI probe in 2011, also has a contract with the city of Baldwin Park that allows them to bill the city up to $120,000 for services without council approval.
Damian and Tuttle, who obtained the documents through public records requests, said they did not file the complaint with the DA’s office.
“I wish I was,” the one who did, said Tuttle.
