Carlsbad's "Tribune of Transparency" has fallen from her surfboard of ethical superiority into a stormy sea of ethical concerns, political expediency, and interest conflicts.
Corinne Schumacher has been very opaque about her first well paying job - as the district office director for her BFF Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner-Horvath. Ms. Schumacher's good fortune raises a variety of questions about the many extremely plausible and arguably inevitable conflicts of interest between her elected position, her political ambitions, and her paycheck. It represents a steep descent from the rarefied ethical air as expressed in her maiden speech as a member of Carlsbad's City Council.
Ms. Schumacher is currently running to be a Democratic State ADEM delegate in next weekend's election. She is also concurrently seeking a seat on the State Democratic Party's Executive Board. She is running on a slate organized by Mike Levin and her new boss Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner Horvath. (D-The swamp). Her candidacy has become rather controversial in view of her elected office in Carlsbad, and her much larger paycheck in Oceanside.
A critique being circulated about this candidacy in Democratic ranks concerns the very possible conflict of interest that would exist whenever the welfare of the party and the politics of an officeholder diverged. (This conflict is shared by Councilwoman Bhat-Patel). It should be noted that the newly elected Democratic Councilwoman in Vista refused to run to in the same election, citing these same potential interest conflicts as a reason.
Schumacher is now the paid office manager for Assemblywoman Horvath's Oceanside office, a domicile purchased by a gazillion dollars of special interest donations from the Sacramento swamp. The joint Schumacher-Horvath Campaign Headquarters in Carlsbad was funded by the same base of building trade union and corporate donations. Her new employment by Boerner Horvath comes after what was in all but name, a joint political campaign.
Though not technically an illegal conflict of interest locally (California is an outlier), Corinne's grab for power raises several ethical concerns. The office of a State Legislator deals with a variety of issues that affect Cities. There is a very real and obvious potential conflict between the interests of Carlsbad (in her Council position) and the interests of the Democratic Party, especially if Cori is elected to the State Party's Executive Board. There is also a real, obvious, and potentially more serious conflict between the interests of Carlsbad and the interests of her new boss, who is paying Cori considerably more than any position she has ever held.
As has been widely reported in the press, Schumacher has also leveraged the three Democratic votes on Carlsbad's new City Council to elect herself as Carlsbad's representative to SANDAG (San Diego County's Regional Association of Governments. In doing so, Schumacher failed to disclose to her fellow Councilmembers or "We the People" her employment by Ms. Boerner-Horvath's in her very key position. During the January 8th Carlsbad City Council meeting (linked here) an interesting dichotomy appeared. When the appointment of a Council representative to the League of California Cities was raised, Ms. Schumacher demurred due to a potential conflict. A similar ethical constraint was not exercised in her campaign for the SANDAG slot.
This exercise in election nullification created yet another place where Cori's many competing interests intersect. One example is the upcoming battle the Newsom Administration, the Legislature, and California's Cities are destined to have over the issue of mandated housing construction and local versus state control. An initial salvo in this battle was Governor Newsom's threat to cut off some state funds to non-compliant communities.
In her failed campaign for Mayor, Schumacher repeatedly asserted that she was squarely on the side of municipalities such as Carlsbad controlling their own destiny in terms of housing unit growth versus Sacramento issuing the marching orders. If Cori Schumacher is elected a member of the state Democratic Party's e-board, or if her boss Assemblywoman Horvath votes to support a housing construction mandate, whose interest will prevail? Will it be the interests of the community that resoundingly rejected her Mayoral candidacy? Will it be the interests of her boss, who has provided needed relief from years of well known financial worries? Will it be the interests of the party that prevails, driven by the expedient need to have a place to land when her presence on the council dais reaches its December 2020 expiry date? Time will tell.
MANY BLESSINGS - NOEL
UPDATE- In response to my inquiries, Cori has stated the following in her just-released "newsletter". She finally has admitted the existence of her new day job. As far as the obvious conflicts of interests her activities represent, this is her response...." I decided to take on another job, that is not in conflict with my elected duties. Left unmentioned is the nature of the position. Also omitted is an acknowledgement she is in the employ of Assemblywoman Boerner Horvath. (D-Special Interests).
The idea that running an office for Assemblywoman Horvath is "not in conflict." with her offices is simply untrue. In her "newsletter" Cori also states she is going to throttle back on her newsletters and other constituent services due to time conflicts, driven by her new job. "We the People" of Carlsbad are being put on the back burner.
We know Cori reads this blog. She is welcome to explain why operating an Assemblyperson's office isn't a conflict for an elected official. Not a single issue involving this city will go untouched by a local Assembly member's core staff.
If Cori succeeds in winning a state Democratic Party E-Board slot next weekend, something will have to give. The Legislature wants to build added housing managed by Sacramento. The one thing the residents of Carlsbad agree upon is local control. Cori campaigned on her support of that concept. What is going to give if there is a conflict between the interests of Carlsbad, the state party, and the person signing the payroll for her state-issued paycheck? When confronted on FB about the inadvisability of the paid staff of politicians running to be an ADEM delegate, Corinne promised a series of recusals. It seems that "transparency" has been forgotten in the name of ambition.
