CONTACT: Ed Herrera, President & CEO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 28, 2009

CHULA VISTA CITY COUNCIL AND PORT APPOINTMENTS

Acting with unprecedented speed, the Chula Vista City Council led by members Pamela Bensoussan and Rudy
Ramirez, hastily appointed long time political allies Mitch Thompson and former Mayor Steven Padilla to the
Council and Port seats respectively.

The selection and appointments of Thompson and Padilla culminate several weeks worth of behind the scenes
efforts by special interest local partisan politics and big union labor bosses to ensure that the decks are stacked for
any future political decisions most favorable to their causes. Labor, certainly wants favorable contract status for
future projects along the bay front in the form of Project Labor Agreements (PLA).

Ms. Bensoussan was clearly acting throughout this process to pay back big labor for their overwhelming support of
her recent Council campaign. Mr. Ramirez who is seeking re-election to his seat desperately wants partisan support
and the support of big labor. Clearly, it was well known that both of the aforementioned Councilmembers were
lobbied heavily behind the scenes to ramrod the selection of Thompson (for the guaranteed vote to select Padilla)
and Padilla. Mr. Thompson admitted to several members of the community that he had been heavily lobbied behind
the scenes by Ms. Bensoussan and labor to support the selection of Padilla.

What is most concerning to the Chula Vista Civic Association’s Committee on Ethics is the disdain that
Councilmembers Bensoussan, Ramirez and Castaneda have displayed towards a democratic process that was
recently used in Sunnyvale to select a temporary replacement to a vacant Council seat due to military deployment.
Instead, they chose the same process to fill seats that both Benssousan and Ramirez vehemently and publicly
complained about in 2005 when a vacant Council seat was filled with Padilla ally Patty Chavez. The hypocrisy of
Bensoussan and Ramirez ruins their credibility throughout this process. Neither, Bensoussan or Ramirez have
suitable explanations for their contrary actions in 2009 that square with their actions in 2005. It is clear to everyone
that this current City Council is guided by political spoils and paybacks in their recent decisions. They have offered
no reasonable nor honest explanations for their actions.

President & CEO Ed Herrera had this to say: “We conclude that there are no members of the current City Council
that truly support the budget reform measures needed to get the fiscal health of the city back in order given the tax
and spend philosophy of all the current members. We note that none of the current Councilmembers opposed the
recent tax grab in Proposition A. And with the appointment of tax hike spokesperson Mitch Thompson, the 67% of
working class voters that opposed Proposition A continue to have no voice in their city government at this time.”

###

www.ChulaVistaCivicAssociation.org | info@chulavistacivicassociation.org | 396 E St. Chula Vista, CA 91910