Councilman accused of trying to sell vote
A California city councilman allegedly pressured officials from a prominent development company to pay him $15,000 so he would vote for a pro-development candidate to fill an empty seat on the council, according to a grand jury transcript released Monday morning.
Prosecutors allege that Beaumont City Councilman Mark Orozco tried to solicit a bribe from Jeff Chambers and Mike Taylor, executives with Pardee Homes, during a January 2016 meeting at one of the company’s model homes. In testimony before the grand jury, Chambers said Orozco wanted to get paid in a matter of days, before the vote.
“I’ve done a lot for you guys. You haven’t done a (expletive) thing for me,” Orozco said, according to Chambers, when asked by a prosecutor to repeat the councilman’s words exactly.
Chambers testified that Orozco went on to tell him, “I know you guys want Sean Balingit (elected to the vacant council seat). I can help that happen. I need your support, and I can support you.”
Orozco, a first-term councilman, was indicted last month
on nine counts of perjury and one count of soliciting a bribe, but the details of his alleged crimes were not public until Monday, when the grand jury transcript was obtained by The Desert Sun.
Unlike regular juries, grand juries are convened in secret to determine if evidence is strong enough to file charges against a suspect, who does not get to offer a defense.
Orozco is scheduled to enter his initial plea in the case Aug. 10. His attorney, David Greenberg, objected to prosecutors’ characterization of events during grand jury proceedings.
“I think a lot of it is assumption and speculation, and that’s not an effective way to prove somebody guilty of a crime,” Greenberg said. “That’s the thing about a grand jury. There’s no defense there to insert objections or their side.”
According to testimony in the transcript, the January meeting between Orozco and Pardee’s executives occurred less than a week before Orozco was to vote on who would fill an empty seat on the Beaumont City Council.
The leading candidates were Sean Balingit, a former planning commissioner whose progrowth stance was favored by developers, according to Chambers’ testimony; and Della Condon, a retired educator.
Chambers said Orozco described himself as a swing vote.
In a brief interview, District Attorney Mike Hestrin described Orozco’s actions as “brazen” and “not particularly sophisticated.”
“He essentially took the fact that he was the deciding vote on an important matter and attempted to monetize it,” Hestrin said.
Chambers testified that Pardee did not pay Orozco. The council member ultimately voted for Condon, not the candidate Pardee favored.