CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“CORRUPTION CHARGES GETTING CLOSER TO GOVERNOR”
Gov. Jerry Brown has tried for many
months to ignore the growing scent of corruption now afflicting his
administration, instead pushing the worldwide battle against climate change
even as he virtually ignored the world’s largest methane leak while it spewed greenhouse
gases for months in his back yard.
But serious conflict of interest
allegations now reach directly into his office, targeting his chief of staff,
Nancy McFadden, the top Sacramento official for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
for many years before she took a $1.04 million golden handshake in 2011 before
rejoining Brown, for whom she worked in the 1970s. (The payment, essentially a
bonus, is documented here: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1004980/000119312511038959/dex1018.htm).
Not only did McFadden take PG&E’s
money, but disclosure forms show she owned about $100,000 worth of PG&E
stock and many potentially lucrative stock options through her early months
back with Brown. During this time, she was allegedly a key part of the
appointment process for new members of the state Public Utilities Commission,
which regulates PG&E and other California utilities, a normal chief of
staff function.
There is no evidence McFadden recused
herself from utility matters. This, of course, raises the question of whether
her golden handshake was really a prepayment for future services.
McFadden is now the subject of a
formal complaint just filed by the Consumer Watchdog advocacy group with the
state Fair Political Practices Commission, a panel very unlikely to act against
the top aide to the man who appointed two of its members.
Charges in the Consumer Watchdog
complaint, filed under the Political Reform Act ironically sponsored by Brown
during his first stint as governor in the 1970s, are sweeping and specific.
McFadden, the group said, “…us(ed) her
official position to influence governmental decisions in which she knew she had
a financial interest. Her actions impacted the value of the PG&E stock
options she held.” The filing goes on to say McFadden “was Gov. Brown’s point
person on utility policy, utility legislation and political appointments to the
PUC.”
Brown Press Secretary Evan Westrup
denied all this, calling the filing against McFadden “riddled with
inaccuracies.” He added that “She was not vetting candidates for the PUC and
did not play a role in the other decisions noted while she had the holdings
referenced…” Brown did not speak about McFadden, just has he’s refused to talk
about corruption allegations at the state Energy Commission and documented
corruption at the PUC.
But emails among the 70,000 obtained
by San Bruno city officials after the 2010 PG&E gas pipeline explosion that
killed eight people there indicate her old friends at PG&E believed she was
involved.
In early 2011, PG&E executive
Brian Cherry – now under criminal investigation along with former PUC President
Michael Peevey – advised someone seeking a high PUC post via email to get help
from McFadden, whom he called “the backdoor route” to getting appointed.
The pileup of ethical problems in
Brown’s administration seems to grow every few weeks, with the McFadden charges
merely the newest. They join obvious conflicts of interest and examples of
cronyism exercised by the Energy Commission, exposed in this column in 2014.
Add the proven collusion between Peevey and executives of Southern California
Edison Co. in assessing consumers more than 70 percent of the cost of the 2012
failure of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station, caused by an Edison blunder.
Then see Brown’s almost total
indifference to the massive methane leak at a Southern California Gas Co.
storage facility near Porter Ranch in Los Angeles, when his sister Kathleen
draws six figures yearly as a director of SoCal’s parent company. Her position
alone should raise conflict-of-interest questions whenever Brown decides
utility policy. The Porter Ranch leak spewed more greenhouse gases than many
months of driving by all the cars in the Los Angeles Basin, but Brown said
little about it.
Taken together, it appears there could
be a pattern of corruption at high levels of state government, and a consistent
Brown practice of ignoring or condoning both corruption and safety lapses.
But other episodes don’t reach as
close to him as the charges against McFadden, his close aide and adviser.
The
bottom line: Brown wants to be remembered for solving California’s budget mess
and aggressively fighting climate change. Right now he risks being remembered
much more negatively.
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Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It,” now available in an updated third edition. His email address is tdelias@aol.com
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