The network of influence wielded by the owners of San Jose’s largest recycling company, now under the FBI microscope, includes the former Silicon Valley mayor turned congressional candidate.
California Waste Solutions, the company at the center of an FBI raid last week that included company executives and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, donated $10,000 in 2022 to a PAC started by Sam Liccardo and his former chief of staff, Jim Reed, to elect pro-business politicians like Mayor Matt Mahan. Liccardo, who served as the city’s mayor until 2022, is now running for Congressional District 16 to replace outgoing Rep. Anna Eshoo.
CWS also donated $3,000 in May 2018 to a Liccardo-backed committee opposing a pro-sprawl ballot initiative, Measure B. The committee has since been disbanded.
Others who received money from CWS or its owners, David Duong and his family, returned the money or donated it, including Liccardo’s rival in the race, Assemblyman Evan Low. The lawmaker received $6,600 from Duong and said he will donate the money to a nonprofit organization for farm workers.
Liccardo and CWS also have another connection: Jonathan Padilla. And that relationship is in the spotlight after Liccardo failed to recuse himself from a critical vote in 2019 that benefited CWS.
[Historias relacionadas]
Padilla, who spent a year working on Liccardo’s 2014 mayoral campaign, served as a lobbyist for the recycling hauler in 2018 and 2019. Padilla called for the controversial recount in the congressional race that gave Liccardo a big lead : Broke a tie between two other politicians in the November election and ensured that Liccardo would only face Low in the November election. second round election.
As a CWS lobbyist, Padilla met with Liccardo in December 2018 to convince him to extend the company’s contract with the city. City records show Padilla met with city officials on behalf of CWS from 2018 to 2019.
A month after that meeting, Liccardo was one of nine council members who voted to continue contract talks with CWS in January 2019.
The San Jose City Council became embroiled in a contentious dispute that year with CWS after city administrators denounced high contamination rates and poor performance, and recommended terminating CWS’s contract. CWS blamed the city for unreasonable fines, failure to educate residents about recycling, and a small trash bin that forces people to throw trash into the recycling stream. They also accused the city of discriminating against a minority-owned business and filed a $34 million lawsuit.
Our news is for everyone.
That means it should be free! We don’t put our news behind a paywall. Your tax-deductible donation is critical to our mission of keeping you informed.
Support San José Spotlight
A critical vote
Prior to that January 2019 vote, Councilwoman Pam Foley recused herself because one of her campaign advisers was later hired by CWS, a policy required by the city. Liccardo, however, did not recuse himself even though Padilla worked on his 2014 mayoral campaign and later lobbied for CWS. The city policy appears to cover only the last few elections. Liccardo was re-elected mayor in 2018.
Padilla, who is also a technology entrepreneur, said Liccardo and Foley’s situations are different. Foley had just been elected to office in 2018 and the consulting firm in question worked on her campaign that year.
“I hadn’t worked for Sam (Liccardo) in over four years, I spent most of those years abroad and I wasn’t that close to Sam at the time, so I don’t think there’s any problem here,” Padilla told him. to San José Spotlight, adding that he did not put as much pressure on the mayor’s office as other city officials.
A city policy requires politicians to abstain from voting if they worked with a campaign consultant in the 12 months before their election who is advocating for an issue they are voting on. The policy aims to “protect” trust in the government by avoiding the appearance of bias or favoritism.
An ethics expert said the public will have to weigh whether Liccardo should have recused himself from the CWS contract vote, even though Padilla’s work on his campaign exceeded the time range covered by the policy.
“Consultants tend to have a wide range of clients. It seems more like a scent issue,” John Sims, a retired law professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, told San José Spotlight. “The fact that the party before the council has the same consultant who worked for the official four years earlier doesn’t seem to be a legal issue. But I don’t think you’ll find any sharp lines here. People will have to make their own judgments about that.”
Liccardo’s campaign maintained that he is not beholden to special interests.
“This election is a choice between Evan Low, who happily accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil companies, PG&E and private prisons, and voted his way, and Sam Liccardo, who refuses to do so,” campaign spokesman Gil Rubinstein told San Jose Spotlight.
Liccardo faces a federal complaint alleging that his campaign coordinated a dark money effort to fund a recount requested by Padilla to eliminate one of his competitors and help his prospects in November. Padilla paid for the recount through a super PAC called Count the Vote, which has some principles in common with a committee supporting Liccardo’s campaign. Liccardo has denied any coordination.
Tainted contributions
A 2021 California Fair Political Practices Commission report alleges that Duong and his son Andy were involved in laundering at least 93 campaign contributions totaling nearly $76,000. The scheme allegedly resulted in the company reimbursing friends for making political contributions to candidates across the state, including the South Bay, in its name, an illegal practice that uses “fake donors.”
Duong and another company executive made contributions to the campaigns of San Jose City Council District 8 candidate Tam Truong and Rep. Ro Khanna. Both have said they will not keep the money.
FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga told San José Spotlight that the investigation is ongoing.
Oakland Mayor Thao allegedly received some of those laundered donations. His home was searched by federal agents last week in connection with an undisclosed investigation.
Duong has maintained that he and his family have done nothing wrong and are cooperating with authorities.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Editor’s note: California Waste Solutions has donated to San José Spotlight.
