Developer James Suner says $6,500 in checks he wrote to former
Councilman Craig Gartman were for legitimate business purposes. The
payments came to light after Gartman was charged with stealing more
than $9,000 from Gilroy’s Memorial Day Parade Fund. Full
article
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Developer James Suner says $6,500 in checks he wrote to former Councilman Craig Gartman were for legitimate business purposes.
The payments came to light after Gartman was charged May 27 with stealing more than $9,000 from Gilroy’s Memorial Day Parade Fund.
Reviews by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of Gartman’s personal accounts turned up one check from Suner’s business – The James Group – for $5,000 in December 2005, while a second, handwritten check from Suner for $1,500 was not dated but was deposited into Gartman’s personal bank account in March 2008, according to court records.
When initially asked by the district attorney’s office about the checks in May this year, Suner couldn’t give definitive answers. His answers were reflected in district attorney’s summation of the interview in the court file. But Thursday, Suner told The Dispatch that the $5,000 was a payment to Gartman for the former councilman’s website design services for the original James Group website and that the second check for $1,500 was for the re-location of metal carports to Suner’s home.
Originally, Suner told the district attorney the $5,000 check was for Gartman’s closet design and installation business that was contracted for one of Suner’s model homes, and that he couldn’t recall what the $1,500 check was for. Gartman deposited the $5,000 check Jan. 6, 2006, more than two years before acquiring Central Coast Closets. Gartman acquired the business on March 1, 2008, according to Gartman’s economic statements filed with the City of Gilroy.
Suner said Thursday his original answers to the district attorney were off the cuff.
“That was my guess off the top of my head,” Suner said. “That was the only thing I could think of. Who’s going to remember a check I wrote six years ago?”
After research by his company’s chief financial officer, Suner sent an email to the Dispatch on Thursday afternoon detailing the expenditures. Suner said there was nothing wrong with doing business with council members.
“I can buy insurance from Al Pinheiro, I can get a proctology exam from Dr. (Peter) Arellano,” he said.
Inquiries into the reasons for paying Gartman were “criminalizing everyday behavior,” Suner said.
Whether council members needed to recuse themselves when he appeared before the dais, Suner said that decision was “entirely up to them.”
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office contacted Suner as part of its investigation into Gartman’s alleged theft of parade funds because Suner was listed as a parade donor. Suner said he has donated approximately $10,000 to the parade during the past decade, and has donated thousands more to projects around Gilroy. Recently, $20,000 of Suner’s money gave the Gilroy Downtown Business Association a chance to help purchase security cameras.
“There’s nothing controversial about what I’ve done in Gilroy,” Suner said.
The District Attorney’s office did not fully investigate Suner’s $5,000 payment to Gartman – which Suner said was not a parade donation – because a four-year statute of limitations would block prosecution even if a violation was discovered, said Deputy District Attorney John Chase.
Several Gilroy City Council members who served with Gartman said they had never taken money outside of approved campaign contributions from Suner or other developers, but said developers did have the potential to play a role in the political realm.
“I think from the beginning of time there’s always been talk between politicians and developers,” said former Councilman Russ Valiquette. “Do I know of any specific actions? No, I don’t.”
Valiquette said candidates often rely on donations from developers.
“My history with developers was like everybody else in town: The bulk of the money for a campaign, unless you’re independently wealthy, it does come from developers,” he said. “They’ll just give it to anybody that’s running.”
Councilman Dion Bracco said changes to how campaign contributions are disclosed could change by the city’s next election.
Bracco said he, Mayor Al Pinheiro and Councilman Peter Leroe-Muñoz – the city’s open government commission – were working on a new ethics policy that could be in place by the 2012 election.
Bracco said a major change would eliminate a campaign finance guideline that states candidates only have to disclose their donors when contributions of $100 or more are made.
“I think voters have a right to know who gave this person money,” Bracco said. “It’ll be right up front and everybody will know about it.”
Bracco said Council members are supposed to report every gift, including rounds of golf or afternoons spent duck hunting. He said some people may still try to avoid playing by the rules.
“It comes down to the individual,” Bracco said. “You can’t stop it. You just have to put more emphasis on everything need to be reported.”
He said he had never been approached with gifts or cash in exchange for Council decisions.
“No, I’ve never had anybody tell me, ‘Hey I’ll trade you money for a vote,’ ” Bracco said.
Councilman Perry Woodward, an attorney who is a partner at the San Jose firm Terra Law, said clients will sometimes write checks made out directly to him, which he signs over to the firm.
“On the surface, it might look kind of funny. You’ve got to dig a little deeper,” Woodward said. “Right now we’re looking at just a piece of a much larger puzzle. This could be perfectly explained.”
He added, “Just because he got a check doesn’t mean it was a gift or, God forbid, a bribe.”
Woodward acted as an adviser to Gartman for a July 2010 meeting with district attorney investigators.
Councilman Bracco, who owns Bracco’s Towing and Transport, said if the check was written for a business purpose, that should have been clearly stated.
“I imagine if I wrote someone a check it would say right on it what it was for. It would be written for a business,” Bracco said. “That’s one thing. People have to make up their own mind: Is it, or is it not?”
He said he didn’t think Suner had done anything illegal.
“I have never known James Suner to be unethical and try to pull anything. Of our local developers, I don’t see any of them doing anything underhanded that they didn’t want the public to know,” Bracco said.
Gartman recused himself from voting on development projects five times between 2005 and 2008, none of them involving The James Group, according to a City of Gilroy review of Council meeting minutes. On four occasions, Gartman did not vote on projects relating to the Gilroy Unified School District, where he was employed as a substitute teacher. He also recused himself from voting on a sewer rehabilitation project because of its proximity to his home on Filice Drive.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission requires individuals who hold public office to disclose yearly financial histories, including employment income, stocks, property and gifts to exceed no more than $420 in a given year. In addition, campaign contributions for City of Gilroy elections cannot exceed $250 per individual donor.
Nowhere in Gartman’s campaign or financial disclosures do the specific $5,000 and $1,500 checks appear, though he does list Central Coast Closets as his personal business with an income between $1,001 and $10,000 in a 2008 filing. In 2005 and 2006, Gartman listed an income of $1,001 to $10,000 working on commission for IFIT Financial.
Former Councilman Roland Velasco agreed developers donating to candidates was common, but said officials still needed to keep a close eye on the potential for suspected bribery.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that, as far as I’m concerned that’s the quickest way to get yourself in trouble,” he said. “What’s even more disturbing is whether or not it gets disclosed. If it gets appropriately reported or disclosed, you have to recuse yourself from votes.”
Velasco said developers “are no different from any other individual that have an interest in city hall.”
“They are going to cover all their bases. They aren’t going to put all their eggs in a single candidate,” he said. “They give money to everybody because they never know how the election is going to turn out.”
Councilman Bob Dillon said he had never taken money from developers, but had shared lunch with them. He said Suner once gave him a bottle of scotch, “but it was cheap scotch.”
“I think Suner’s clean,” Dillon said.
Gartman has been charged with stealing more than $9,000 from the Gilroy Memorial Day Parade Fund while serving as co-chair of the event’s committee from 2002 to 2008. He will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Dept. 105 of the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill, according to Amy Cornell, District Attorney’s office spokeswoman.
“It appears to us that this is a six- or seven-year period, and it seems to be an insignificant amount of money,” said Kirk Elliott, Gartman’s attorney. “It appears there are some accounting issues, and whether that amounts to a crime, I don’t think so. We need to review the discovery and we’re going to address the issues in court.”
When asked what he would be requesting for the discovery period, Elliott said, “Everything,” including audio recordings of interviews between Gartman and investigators from the District Attorney’s office.
He said he couldn’t comment on whether he would pursue a plea deal or take the case to trial until he had more time to review the case.
