Montebello Officials Delay Recall of Delgado and Hadjinian, Issue False Statement Regarding Los Cerritos Community News

Montebello Mayor Vanessa Delgado. On the right is Mayor pro tem Jack Hadjinian with his good friend, former L.A. County Assessor John Noguez who is awaiting trial on corruption charges.

BY BRIAN HEWS

Hews Media Group-Community News has obtained two letters addressed to proponents of the movement to recall Montebello Mayor Vanessa Delgado and Mayor pro tem Jack Hadjinian that cite “deficiencies” in the submitted Petitions, the City of Montebello once again putting the brakes on the movement to remove the two unpopular City officials.

The current Petitions are part of the Notice of Intent to Recall (NIR), the first step in the recall process.

If approved, the NIR’s allow proponents to begin the toughest part of the process, gathering enough signatures to place the recall on a ballot.

Evidence shows the two letters indicate a well thought out recall delay strategy by City officials who point to obscure Elections Code violations, while implicitly acknowledging that the most important part of the NIR’s, the signatures, are valid.

The two letters, which were over 450 words, was sent by Montebello City Clerk Irma Barajas, who is the wife of Montebello Councilman Art Barajas.

The only difference between the two 43-line letters was two short sentences, the remainder of the verbiage in the letters was identical.

Conspicuously absent from the two letters was the rejection of any of the 30 signatures on the NIR’s.

Barajas began her letters citing California Elections Code section 11042(b) which “requires the filing of two blank copies of the (recall) Petition.”

According to Barajas, “the proponents filed two different blank copies, one which was two-sided, the second which was two pages, and you (the proponents) filed only one copy.”

Barajas then cited the fact that the proponents did not file an affidavit with the notices, which were published in HMG-CN’s Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.

“Since the notices were filed with our newspaper, we could have sent the affidavit immediately,” said HMG-CN Publisher Brian Hews, “the Los Cerritos Community Newspaper name was on the top of the notice.”

The third point cited by Barajas could land the City in legal hot water.

In her statement, Barajas falsely stated that HMG-CN’s Los Cerritos Community Newspaper did not qualify as a newspaper of general circulation in Montebello.

The statement suggests that Barajas’ either has no experience in the area of newspaper adjudications, which would be highly unusual for someone in her position, or it is a validation of the City’s recall delay strategy.

“Make no mistake, that is Delgado and Hadjinian talking through Barajas,” Hews said, “they have both attacked me for publishing true stories about them, Hadjinian constantly calls this newspaper yellow journalism and Delgado frequently trolls people on social media who defend this newspaper, they are trying to delay the recall.”

Barajas stated that “there is no proof that Los Cerritos Community News qualifies as a newspaper of general circulation within the city of Montebello.”

“Dead wrong,” said Hews, “Montebello does not have a legitimate City adjudicated paper, given that fact, California Government Code Section 6042 applies to the city of Montebello.”

Code 6042 states, “Where no newspaper of general circulation is published within the jurisdiction (Montebello) of the officer, then the publication, notice by publication, or official advertising shall be given or made in a newspaper of general circulation published nearest thereto.”

“We are the newspaper of general circulation published nearest thereto, we are the next closest newspaper” said Hews, “Barajas is the City Clerk, so either she is ignorant of Code 6042 or she, and certain City officials, purposely defamed my company in a public document to delay the recall. The published notices for the recall of Delgado and Hadjinian are adjudicated.”

Hews immediately fired an email off to Barajas on Monday demanding a retraction.

“I have the letters you wrote to the proponents related to the recall of Vanessa Delgado and Jack Hadjinian,” wrote Hews, “I am demanding you resend the letter correcting yourself on your statement concerning the adjudication of my newspaper, Los Cerritos Community News, so it is on the record.”

“Montebello does not have a legitimate adjudicated newspaper therefore, under Gov’t [sic] Code Section 6042, the City (and recall proponents) are allowed to use the next nearest City adjudicated newspaper which is Los Cerritos Community News.”

Hews finished, “Please send the letter to the proponents by the end of this week and copy me, sending me both the letter and proof of mailings.”

Barajas finished her letter saying that the proponents must basically start again, “these numerous and substantial deficiencies cannot be disregarded. You are obligated to make these corrections and republish (the NIR) and refile a corrected Petition.

A Montebello resident who did not want to be identified told HMG-CN, “The only substantial deficiency is Barajas’ statement is that Los Cerritos Community News cannot run notices in Montebello. The others, as Barajas said herself, could have been disregarded. Barajas had to throw in the newspaper statement because her other deficiencies were bogus.”