The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), a regulatory body that monitors California campaign spending, has issued a letter of warning to Mayor Carmen Montano for having accepted a gift over the allowed limit…
The FPPC opened this case in 2022 after receiving a complaint from a Milpitas resident. The complaint had to do with a travel gift to China, totaling $3,600, that Montano accepted from an individual named William Wang back in 2019, when she was a Milpitas City Councilmember. At the time, the allowable gift limit for elected officials in the state of California was $500.
Said the FPPC letter, which was dated February 5, 2024, “Montano and another public official, Rodrigo Espinosa, reported a gift from William Zhen Wang. The investigation determined that this gift was at least $3,100 over the annual gift limit. By accepting this gift, both violated the Act’s gift limit.”
The complaint also included an allegation that Mayor Montano’s Statement of Economic Interest that she filed was inaccurate; however the FPPC determined that this allegation was unfounded.
The FPPC’s Enforcement Division decided to close the case with a warning letter instead of a fine. Reason being, the gift was related to a group of officials known as “Water for Elected Latino Leaders,” and the China trip was for educational and cultural purposes. Said the letter, “There is no evidence that William Wang had business [before Milpitas].”
Moreover, Montano both reported the gift and provided evidence of having partially paid it down.
“The gift was reported and I hid nothing. I publicly disclosed the gift on my 700 form and did not think I did anything wrong, because I fully disclosed the amount of the gift,” wrote Mayor Montano in an email to The Beat. “I refunded most of the money to Mr. Wang so what I received would be below the gift limit, because it was the right thing to do.”
I’ve grown so suspicious of foreign governments interfering in our political process, that I am concerned about what brain-washing and political influence the authoritarian government of China may be exerting with this gift.
“Water for Elected Latino Leaders” seems made-up since it does not appear in search engine results. Because “There is no evidence that William Wang had business [before Milpitas]”, why was he paying $3,600 to send our Mayor to China? Given the interference of Russia and China in our elections, I can only imagine what “educational and cultural purposes” they had in mind. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-iran-china-likely-to-engage-in-new-election-interference-efforts-microsoft-analysis-finds/
Our city would be better served by our Mayor’s attendance at the Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL) 12th Annual Statewide Conference that will be held from Friday, March 15 to Saturday, March 16, 2024, in San Jose. https://latinosforwater.org/