Daly City's political theater

Daly City voters are not strangers to bizarre political theater and the upcoming city council election promises even more. This year, three seats on the Daly City Council are available and five contenders have filed for office including three incumbents and two new challengers. All of the incumbents, who have served from two-four terms, will carry some baggage into this election as it has been a tumultuous few years for them all.

The most recent newsmaker among the incumbents is two-term councilmember Maggie Gomez who is now facing 16 felony charges including perjury and insurance fraud. Gomez is being charged for insurance fraud related to her work injury and subsequent workers’ compensation claim in 2005 when she worked as a patient relations manager for Seton Hospital also in Daly City.

Insurance investigators began looking into Gomez’s claim and allegedly observed her exercising, walking, entering and exiting a truck despite her claims to insurers that she was unable to perform such tasks due to her injury. Gomez was arrested in October of 2009 and remains free on $100,000 bail. Her trial began this month.

Gomez’s colleague, Michael Guingona, who is seeking his fifth term in office, will also carry a bit of baggage.

After serving 10 years on the powerful San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) Board, Guingona was removed from the board by a vote of his city council colleagues on the Peninsula as a city representative on the board in a rare coup and replaced by South San Francisco Councilmember Karyl Matsumoto.

According to news reports, Guingona was removed primarily for his absenteeism, missing as many as 11 or more monthly meetings over two years and then trying to explain away the absences - ascribing them to some personal issues while ignoring the fact that he was also doing a television show in the Philippines which also played a role.

The third incumbent, Carol Klatt, is also seeking a fifth full term after serving 17 years on the council. Klatt has not experienced the type of individual scandal as those of her colleagues but despite that she may have a challenging race anyway. In fact, four years ago, Klatt barely survived an insurgent challenge by then school board member and now elected Daly City Clerk Annette Hipona. This is despite the fact that Klatt enjoyed a great deal of institutional support – support that may not be there this time around.

But Klatt and company wasted little time in extracting a little revenge against Hipona just two years later when she was elected the City Clerk of Daly City

In November of 2008, Hipona overwhelmingly defeated the Daly City political machine-backed candidate Teresa Proano by a margin of nearly 2-1. Members of the Daly City Council were non-plussed to say the least.

Fast forward a few months and lo and behold, the Daly City Council, at its March 9, 2009 meeting, voted to slash the salary of the City Clerk by over 50 percent, down to $52,988 a year from $109,000.

The video of this event is available here.

Months later, the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury lambasted the Daly City Council and the City Manager for ham-handedly slashing the salary of the newly elected City Clerk calling it a clear example of politically motivated revenge. Klatt in particular may have to answer for this action now.

Then there was the controversy of the proposed home resale permit.

The proposed resale inspection permit process contained in the Draft Housing Element considered by the council last year as part of the City’s General Plan would have required a resale permit prior to the close of escrow for all property transactions involving residential structures containing between one and four dwelling units.

Sounds simple and many communities already have such a program. But for homeowners, particularly of aging housing stock, this could be a huge liability. If any previous owner had made any structural changes, perhaps a re-do of a bathroom or adding a room out back, the current owner trying to sell their home could be on the hook for a whole range of code violations that will need to be fixed.

For the City, the idea was meant to increase the “…abatement of dangerous living conditions caused by the construction of illegal rooms and additions.” But for homeowners, the issue touched a nerve at the thought of inspectors walking through their house and demanding costly fixes just when they are trying to move on.

The San Francisco Association of Realtors, which also covers Daly City, joined in the fray. The Realtors, likely fearing a burdensome process that could stifle home sales in an already weak market, launched an all out assault. The Realtors issued three city-wide mailers lambasting the City for the proposal. The mailers included cartoon images of “Inspection Police” raiding local homes looking for costly violations and emptying the pockets of unsuspecting homeowners.

On the back page of the mailers the Realtors have includes the names, contact information, terms of office and date of election for each member of the City Council in a not-so subtle implication that the proposal on the table may come back to haunt them at election time.

Mobile home park battle

All of the individual and collective errors, arrogance or poor conduct may or may not impact the incumbents as much of the issues are basically old news now. With the exception of the continuing saga of the Franciscan Mobile Home Park in Daly City.

That saga is too long to detail here but many mobile home park residents contemplated running for office this year, some even taking out papers. Their intent was clearly not to support the incumbents.

For the challengers, local businesswoman Dorie Paniza and retiree and community activist Richard Brugger, their success will be predicated on whether or not they can leverage these issues to convince voters that a change is needed. If they can’t or won’t, then expect to see the incumbents reelected even with their many scandals, trials (literal and metaphorical) and tribulations.

Contact Bruce Balshone at bruce.examiner@gmail.com
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