Coming back to council

Sweetwater Union High School District board president John McCann’s time on the school board is up and he’s not running for reelection.

Instead, the former Chula Vista councilman may return to City Hall in seat 1 of the City Council, if elected on Nov. 4.
McCann said his return is prompted by a desire to move Chula Vista forward with future developments.

“The idea was always that I would like to come back and be able to be at the city,” he said. “There were so many things at the city that I helped start and that I helped make progress on that they all have seemed to have stalled.”

Some of those projects include developing the city’s university and research park along with the bayfront.

McCann,46, said he chose to run for city council rather than mayor because he wanted to be a “team player.”

“I’m not here to say ‘Hey look at me, look at me, look what I did’ I’m here to be part of the team, to be able to help move things along. That’s really I think what this city needs is to have people who are going to work together and put the city and missions above themselves. And that’s always been my history.”

McCann said he hasn’t decided if he ever wants to be mayor of Chula Vista.

McCann, a Republican, bills himself as a fiscal conservative.

“I think what you need to do is be a good financial steward of the taxpayer,” he said.

He cites his fiscal conservative approach by leading a grassroots effort in defeating the one-percent sales tax in 2009 while on the city council, which he said would have taken $100 million out of Chula Vistans pocketbooks over 10 years.

Although he considers himself a fiscal conservative, McCann and the Sweetwater Union High School District’s board of directors paid former superintendent Jesus Gandara $500,000 when they fired him 2011.

Gandara this year pleaded guilty in a corruption case that involved him and fellow board members.

McCann said the board had no choice but to honor Gandara’s contract.

“I never gave Gandara his contract with the golden parachute,” he said. “And the only way we could terminate him is to accept the contract that the prior board had approved, therefore there was really no option.”

McCann said if the school board did not stick to the terms of the contract, Gandara may have sued the district and that ultimately would have cost the district more than the nearly $500,000 paid to Gandara to fight in litigation.

McCann felt he could not fire Gandara for cause because he was still relatively new to the board at the time and wasn’t fully aware of Gandara’s lack of ethics.

Another issue McCann supported despite its price tag was a reccomendation to hold a special election to replace former board member Arlie Ricasa who had also pleaded guilty in the same corruption trial.

McCann said although a special election costs money, he was still being financially prudent because the cost estimate by school district’s attorney, Dan Shinoff,of $ 1.5 million was inaccurate.

“When you have an open seat on the school board, the education code says that you have to have it during a regularly scheduled election,” McCann said.

“And if we had the election in June it would have been at most $83,000.”

McCann said another reason why he voted for a special election over an appointment was that he was against having indicted members of the board making a decision on the appointment process.

During his second term on the city council, McCann said he nor the council signed off on the item that provided a bodyguard for former Mayor Steve Padilla at a cost of $10,000 per month.

“The item that (was approved) was only an item for security and not for a specific body guard,”McCann said,

The2006 agenda item that is cited for the additional security was stated as a resolution to amend “the mayor and council’s budget.”

In addition, McCann said, the city manager at the time, Dave Rowlands, used his signing authority to be able to help fund the bodyguard.

Since 1991 McCann has owned a family property management business. He said he owns 10 residential homes in Chula Vista. He also helps his wife Myssie run a medical transcription business.

McCann was in a car accident in 2013 but he says he has recovered from it.

“I’m doing much better, there’s still something’s I’ll have to deal with physically through the rest of my life,” he said.

“I used to be a great athlete and my athleticism may have decreased a little.”
McCann said for privacy reasons he won’t discuss his medical issues.

He did say, however, that his judgment has not been impaired since the accident.

In regard to the numerous cease and desist letters sent out by an attorney for the Sweetwater district on behalf of McCann, McCann said that was all former superintendent Ed Brand’s doing and that he had not known about the letters.

“Ed Brand was the one who was in charge of the legal stuff and sending out letters and things like that,” he said.

McCann said the only cease and desist letter that he is aware of is one sent out by his own attorney, who McCann declines to name because he said it is “a private matter, that was issued to community member Bernardo Vasquez.

“The idea that he (was) going out saying things about my accident, negative things about my health is extremely inappropriate,” he said. “It’s a potential Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violation.”