Sergio Calderon, Board President and Division Four Director of the Lakewood- based Water Replenishment District of Southern California, is once again flaunting the incompatible office law and spurning the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.
He is starting a fundraising effort and election campaign to win a seat on the Maywood City Council.
Mr. Calderon’s Division Four area includes the city of Maywood.
In 2009, Mr. Calderon, who held his Director seat at the time, resigned his Maywood City Council seat one month before a civil trial filed by the L.A. District Attorney commenced, suing him for incompatible offices.
But that is not deterring Mr. Calderon as he is already assembling a cast of corrupt and convicted characters to run his campaign.
Sources are telling the Hews Media Group-Community News that Mr. Calderon has hired Angel Gonzales, the longtime East Los Angeles political operative, owner of Pyramid Press and a felon who pleaded down to a misdemeanor.
He is known in southeast L.A. for his past work for former South Gate Treasurer Albert (Big Al) Robles, who is serving time in federal prison for his part in a wide-ranging bribery scheme.
Mr. Calderon has also hired convicted felon Ric Mayer, convicted on seven counts of felony electoral fraud in 2001 for lying about his place of residence to qualify for the South Gate ballot.
A campaign fundraising flyer we have obtained shows that Mr. Calderon h already has secured endorsements from a Who’s Who list of questionable and unethical Los Angeles politicians.
The flyer includes Albert (Little Al) Robles, mayor of Carson and Water Replenishment District Division Five Director. Mr. Robles is fighting an incompatible office lawsuit filed by the County District Attorney.
It also includes Compton City Councilman Isaac Galvan, who was recently admonished by the D.A. for excessive pay. Mr. Calderon has been hired as a “liaison” for Mr. Galvan’s Council office. Sources tell us that Mr. Galvan is helping to fund Mr. Calderon’s Maywood City Council campaign.
The flyer also included embattled Central Basin Municipal Water Director Leticia Vasquez, who was recalled from her Lynwood City Council seat in 2007.
Along with her friends Central Basin Director James Roybal and President Bob Apodaca, they are running Central Basin into the ground while simultaneously suing the agency.
Ms. Vasquez is a party plaintiff in a “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuit against the very agency she was elected to serve, a lawsuit that has cost the agency hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend.
Like Mr. Calderon, previously Ric Mayer and Angel Gonzales ran Ms. Vasquez’s election and they contributed thousands to her campaign.
Lastly Maywood City Councilman Thomas Martin, Mr. Calderon’s good friend, is endorsing Mr. Calderon.
Mr. Martin, the only one to respond to our emails, said, “yes, I am supporting him. But at the end of the day, he doesn’t really need me. He can win on his own and has proven that before.”
Martin went on, “I talked to Sergio. He said he is running because as City Clerk, he has been not been given access to Maywood City Hall nor city records as is his right as City Clerk. It’s my understanding, that the City of Maywood has three independent mutual water companies, not run by City Hall. The city does not have a water department, and it should not be a conflict for him.”
With the endorsements, and with Little Al Robles in his corner, Mr. Calderon is snubbing another potential incompatible office lawsuit, a fight he lost in 2009 after a two-year battle.
Back in 2007, a conflict of interest complaint was filed with the district attorney’s office asserting that Mr. Calderon was wrongly serving both on Maywood’s council and as a board member of the Water Replenishment District.
“There is a possibility of a significant clash of duties or loyalties between the two positions,” the complaint read.
Mr. Hews may be contacted at loscerritosnews.net
