<p><br>
</p>
<p>The Chula Vista City Council has voted twice on the appointment of a community member to serve on an important sales tax oversight committee, but now both votes are raising concerns over their legality.</p>
<p>The Council first voted on the nomination of Jesse Navarro to serve on the Citizens' Oversight Committee on May 16th after Mayor John McCann made a motion for his appointment.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span><span><span>The November election delivered two surprising results in Chula Vista: a candidate who died two months before the election still won the City Attorney's race, and the biggest spender in the City’s history lost his campaign for Mayor despite having major endorsements and multiple times the resources than his opponent.</span></span></span></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>With all outstanding votes now counted, a Republican Councilman in Chula Vista has won a hard-fought race to become Mayor of the 2nd largest city in San Diego County.</p>
<p>John McCann, 54, who is serving his fourth four-year term on the Chula Vista City Council, defeated perennial candidate Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar by 2,712 votes, or more than 4% of the votes cast in the November 8th election.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>A Chula Vista councilman currently under investigation for alleged campaign finance violations ran afoul of state law during a City Council on Tuesday by improperly abstaining from voting on a developer’s project amendments after the developer gave McCann a $10,000 contribution last December.</p>
<p></p>
<p>John McCann, a long-time Chula Vista Councilman, accepted over $40,000 in unpaid campaign literature from two entities who went unpaid for more than a year after the election, apparently in violation of the City’s campaign finance laws.</p>
<p>The City’s Municipal Code defines “a loan or extension of credit” as a campaign contribution subject to the limit of $300 and only permissible from a person, not a company or entity. </p>
<p></p>
<p>Chula Vista politician John McCann used a legal defense fund to recoup legal fees he owed from a 2014 defamation lawsuit he filed – and he appears to have violated state and local election laws by using a legal defense fund to file a lawsuit, not defend one. </p>
<p>State and local elections laws restrict the use of legal defense funds to only pay fees and costs associated with prosecutions or lawsuits filed against candidates or elected officials. </p>