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The Sept. 17 Hollister City Council agenda contained business with no apparent controversial items, including approving the city’s strategic goals and analyzing the feasibility of a future motorcycle rally. Nevertheless, the mood of the meeting quickly shifted as one council member launched heated accusations against another.
Councilmember Rolan Resendiz defiantly questioned the eligibility of Concilmember Rick Perez to hold an elected office based on Perez’s criminal history and asked that the item be put on a future agenda. During the exchange, Resendiz did not adhere to multiple calls for order by Mayor Mia Casey. Later, Councilmember Tim Burns requested an investigation into whether Resendiz’s conduct once again violated the City Council’s code of conduct.
Resendiz has a history of disorderly conduct in public meetings, which was referenced by the 2023-24 San Benito County Civil Grand Jury report. While the report did not name him, Resendiz has been censured, a form of reprimand by the council, for his conduct on three occasions.
Resendiz has brought up Perez’s arrests and convictions multiple times. His request to put the item on a future agenda did not receive support from the other council members.
Resendiz referenced an April 2023 KSBW article regarding a previous exchange he had with Perez on this topic, during which, Rezendiz said, Perez admitted that he’d been convicted of a crime 79 times. In that article, Perez is asked if he had been convicted 80 times, to which he replied that it was 79 times, including parking tickets. The article also reports that Perez said he had served time in prison for possession of stolen guns.
“This council has not looked into his criminal record,” Resendiz said at the Sept. 17 meeting. “There are state laws that preclude you from even sitting up here as a council member.”
Mayor Mia Casey, Burns and councilmember Dolores Morales said the governing board had already looked into the issue. They asked city attorney Mary Lerner to confirm.
“I thought I had a recollection of that, but I need to check and let everyone know,” Lerner said.
Perez did not respond to the accusations and declined to speak to BenitoLink after the meeting. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to San Benito County Superior Court documents, Perez pleaded guilty to a felony in 2012 for corporal injury to a child for an incident that occurred in 2011. He was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three years of probation.
His conviction was set aside in 2017. According to Penal Code 1203.4, which is referenced in the court document, this means the court withdrew his guilty plea after Perez completed his sentence.
The law also states that the order to set the conviction aside “does not relieve [Perez] of the obligation to disclose the conviction in response to any direct question contained in any questionnaire or application for public office.”
The city of Hollister’s application form does not include a section where a candidate is asked if they are a convicted felon.
Court documents also show that Perez was convicted of two misdemeanor charges of assault and battery in 2012. One was for threatening an “officer and employee of a public and private educational institution,” and the other was for being under the influence of a controlled substance.
There are also 14 criminal citations of a person named Rick Orlando Perez in Santa Clara County records between 1988 and 2009, but no additional information is available online. A Superior Court clerk told BenitoLink two of the cases were related to driving with a suspended license, a misdemeanor. There were other cases from the 90s that did not have available documents, according to the clerk.
In addition, there are three criminal citations connected with Rick Perez in the same time span.
BenitoLink called multiple political law firms but was unable to speak with a lawyer.
State law AB 2410, prohibits people convicted of a felony involving bribes, embezzlement, extortion or theft of public money to run for elected office. Asked if there are any additional laws that prohibit people from running for office, Chief Deputy Clerk-Recorder Ana Castro De Maquiz told BenitoLink the eligibility is mostly aligned with eligibility to register as a voter.
According to the California Secretary of State website, being convicted of a crime may not affect a person’s eligibility to vote.
San Benito County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters Francisco Diaz said his office receives lists of recently convicted felons in the county throughout the year. Those names are then removed from the registered voters list. He said when someone files for candidacy, the system automatically runs the name through the registered voters list to confirm the person’s eligibility to run for office.
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