It happened in an instant. A volunteer announcer at Vista’s big Christmas Parade noticed a very cute dog and made an off-the-cuff comment about the pup and its owner. That comment, though, almost cost the Vista Chamber of Commerce thousands of dollars.
Earlier this month, the Vista Chamber put on the annual Vista Christmas Parade, a yearly tradition that’s been a holiday staple in the city for decades. During the parade, a volunteer announcer jokingly made a comment suggesting that people should vote for a specific City Council candidate because she had her cute dog with her at the event.
That candidate is Denisse Barragan, who is running for the District 3 seat against current City Councilmember Katie Melendez. Barragan also happens to be the Vista Chamber 2023 Businessperson of the Year.
What seemed like a playful joke, though, ended up being a violation of state law, and it could’ve cost the Chamber $8,500.
The (Accidental) Misuse of Public Funds
Each year, the Chamber receives a grant from the city of Vista to offset the cost of the parade. This year, that amount was $8,500.
When the volunteer announcer jokingly told people at the parade to vote for Barragan, it was technically an endorsement. State law prohibits the use of public funds for political endorsements.
Vista Mayor John Franklin said Councilmember Melendez, who will be running against Barragan to keep her council seat in 2024, was “persistent” in pushing for the Chamber to return the $8,500 of city funds because of the violation.
Once Franklin realized what Melendez wanted to do, he put the item on the City Council agenda to involve the public, he told Voice.
“I thought that was an excessively punitive measure for a mistake of a volunteer,” Franklin said. “And so, I said, ‘look, if that’s what you want to do, then you can do that in the full light of day – let’s discuss it in front of the public and let the council decide as a body.’”
Melendez told Voice that she never advocated for any particular penalty but thought there needed to be a correction because there was a misuse of public funds.
In response to the potentially expensive punishment, Vista Chamber CEO Rachel Beld assured members in an email that what happened was an accident. The Chamber did not endorse or encourage the comment. She asked for members’ support at the Dec. 12 council meeting, where it was set to be discussed.
“Losing $8,500 would negatively impact the Chamber and possibly jeopardize our ability to host the parade in the future,” Beld said in the email. “We recognize that a mistake was made but feel this punishment is too harsh and unfair.”
Beld asked members to go to the meeting and publicly speak in support of the Vista Chamber. In the meantime, she prepared a new set of guidelines and rules for future volunteers of Chamber events to avoid mistakes like this from happening again, which she shared with the council and city staff.
A Last-minute Change of Heart
I tuned into the live stream of the Vista council meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 12 waiting for the Christmas Parade agenda item to come up, but it never did.
The council skipped over the item entirely, they didn’t even talk about the fact that they weren’t going to talk about it. So, I started asking around.
Franklin told me that Melendez seemed to change her mind about pursuing any kind of punishment for the Chamber only a few hours before the meeting started. He got word of her change of heart from the city manager, and Franklin agreed to remove the item from the agenda.
Melendez, who reiterated that she never specifically asked for the funds back, said she was satisfied with Beld’s corrective plan.
“After meeting with Rachel Beld, I was like, ‘I think that the corrections you’re offering Rachel are completely fine and are totally sufficient to address the situation. I don’t feel the need to demand anything more from you,’” Melendez said.
That means the Chamber will not have to pay back the $8,500.
Franklin told me that there were over a dozen people prepared to come to the meeting and advocate for the Vista Chamber, and if the item was discussed, it probably wouldn’t have been a very “happy conversation with the community.”
In Other News
- Affordable housing requirements will double, from 10 percent to 20 percent, only in some areas of Oceanside under changes approved by the Oceanside City Council. The council decided against the Planning Commission’s earlier recommendation to increase city’s inclusionary housing requirement from 10 percent to 15 percent. (Union-Tribune)
- A ransomware group of cyber extortionists announced its possession of records stolen from the Tri-City Medical Center from a recent cyber-attack on the dark web, a part of the Internet where such information is often bought and sold. (Union-Tribune)
- Local high school students are asking an Escondido City Councilmember to apologize after he allegedly questioned their citizenship status when they didn’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance following a council meeting last month. (Coast News)
- A State Senate subcommittee says climate change is “wreaking havoc” on the coastal rail corridor from Santa Barbara to San Diego because of landslides, cliff collapses and sea level rise. (Union-Tribune)
Franklin is a liar.
Au contraire Nanci, au contraire. Indeed!
TLDR: Melendez is not one of the good old boys. They are supporting her opponent.
Denisse and Mayor Franklin are some of the kindest and most upstanding citizens I know. And Rachel Beld is an amazing woman who does so much for the vista community. Why would anyone intentionally want to take away the funds that directly supports the community and not the actual candidate financially? Just because of one stupid comment from someone who was not briefed on what they can and cannot say.
100% Agree Chelsey. Melendez retracted. All is well in the Kingdom. Well…..except for Nanci coming out of left field fighting that bee in her bonnet.
” I don’t feel the need to demand anything more from you,’” Melendez said.”
not the cute dog comment, but this comment is what will defeat Ms. Melendez. i would *never* vote for a public official who “demands” things from staff.
John Franklin is a professional political strategist who specializes in ugly/smear tactics. Everything he says or does is to paint a situation in a certain light, or video bytes for his online media, and especially uses the tactic of lying. Because once you put it out there it has the effect you see in these comments.
Here we go…..Who invited Slander to the party? Thankfully our Mayor John Franklin is not affected by it, like water on a duck’s back. Slander will see it’s self out of the same door it came in. The people that voted for him and support him know better.
This is John Franklin playing games. Just because John Franklin says that Melendez was “persistent in pushing for the Chamber to return the $8500” doesn’t mean its true. In fact Melendez contradicts that statement later in the article. He lied to the reporter and the reporter bought it – sad.
Also – the reporter says that the council just skipped over the item during the meeting. That is not true. Franklin pulled it from the agenda. Had he left it on the agenda, Melendez would’ve been able to explain her thinking. Instead he pulled it at the last minute , giving him the opportunity to lie to the reporter.
This is what John Franklin does. In fact, he is a professional. He’s a professional political strategist and he is very good at it. He knows what levers to pull and when and how to frame his speech to be misleading with just enough truth to not call it a lie.
As a political operative, John Franklin knows how expensive and difficult it is to get your message (vote for me) in front of a captive audience (like a crowd at a parade). His candidate not only got that, she also got a very slanted article written against her opponent. John Franklin is the winner here.
Franklin is making himself out to be a hero by stopping a crippling $8,500 fine. The only problem is that no one ever wanted an $8,500 fine. He made up an enemy and then convinced a reporter and a lot of others that he beat the enemy. That is a talented guy.
If you care about Vista, you will think critically when taking information from John Franklin.
All politicians are professional fund raisers and political strategists, otherwise they would never have been elected to begin with. Sounds like you are singling out one person and implying that no other politician is a professional strategist. That’s a fairly common way of saying that mine don’t stink but everyone else’s does.
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