At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, embattled City Council Member Veronica Vargas finally confirmed our concerns that she has a conflict of interest on certain land use projects by recusing herself from the Westside Specific Plan update agenda item. Vargas indicated in her recusal that Patterson Petroleum LLC is her business client and one of the applicants of the commercial portion of the Gateway area. Watch the video below –
Her recusal raises more questions than it answers.
While Vargas’ recusal in itself was refreshing, the timing of her recusal raises serious questions that City Attorney Leticia Ramirez should investigate further. Ramirez and the public deserve to know the answers to the following issues.
How long has Patterson Petroleum LLC been a client of Veronica Vargas? Did she seek to influence City decisions while she was negotiating to work with Patterson Petroleum? What work does a land use development consultant perform for an oil company?
The answer to this question is significant. The Westside Specific Plan, formerly known as Tracy Gateway, has been worked on by the City before Vargas’ time on city council. Yet Vargas was at the forefront of modifying the original plans on behalf of her benefactor Mike Sandhu in 2018 that has cost taxpayers $500,000. Transparent Tracy contends that Vargas is employed by Mike Sandhu, the largest property owner in the Westside Specific Plan. However, Vargas’ recusal on behalf of Patterson Petroleum raises the same concerns, which is that she has been using her role as City Council Member to influence the Westside Specific Plan on behalf of her clients.
Did she report working for Patterson Petroleum LLC?
Per the FPPC, “Every elected official and public employee who makes or influences governmental decisions is required to submit a Statement of Economic Interest, also known as the Form 700…It provides necessary information to the public about an official’s personal financial interests to ensure that officials are making decisions in the best interest of the public and not enhancing their personal finances.”
If there is an elected official in Tracy that were concerned over ethics and transparency, it’s Veronica Vargas. We’ll be digging into this more.
Why is Patterson Petroleum LLC an applicant for the commercial component of the project?
Patterson Petroleum is an oil drilling company that is based out of Texas. The company’s LLC is not listed on the CA Secretary of State website. Their parent website does not give any indication that they are investors into commercial properties. It’s suspicious unto itself.
Community Voices Making A Difference
After months of raising the issue about concerns over Veronica Vargas’ conflict of interests, the communities voices are finally getting through to City Hall. The fact that Vargas recused herself on the Westside is significant! It’s the result of hard work by community members such as Alice English, who is a regular watchdog of City Hall. Great work to everyone and keep up the hard work!
Keep sending us those leads and we’ll keep working to uncover the truth!