Watch: Alameda County DA Pamela Price announces state probe into recall group's finances

thank you for coming my name is Pamela price I'm the elected district attorney of alam County uh I'm here to announce this morning that the fair political practices commission has opened an investigation into the undemocratic effort to overturn uh my election from November of 2022 we have received uh on behalf of the protect the wind campaign the fppc has notified us that they are investigating uh revive the uh pack that is funding the undemocratic effort to overturn the election initially that pack was called supporters to recall Pamela price ultimately it Mor morphed into something called Reviving The Bay Area uh or I think it was vice versa but anyway we know that Reviving The Bay Area is a pack committee that was set up to support the undemocratic recall effort it is a the financial arm of uh this organization called safe and between September um 2023 and October November 2023 they donated approximately $578,000 to Safe without complying with the laws that govern all political committees in California so we applaud the fpc's action to investigate this this entity as well as the finances that have also come under question of the safe committee where we learned that they were paying the some of the main spokespersons and funding a illegal force of that they called a security Force so there have been a lot of financial irregularities coupled with the irregular uh practices of the signature Gathering uh company PCI Communications that literally paid for hundreds of people to come into our community and gathered signatures using bait and switch tactics and misleading people and engaging in fraudulent uh signature Gathering so this entire action by these uh a handful of wealthy folks who want to overturn the election has been rif with fraud has been rif with harass assment of my supporters which we have also reported to The Honorable Shirley Weber the Secretary of State and we are asking her to undertake an investigation of that kind of activity as well today the Board of Supervisors is considering whether to certify the signatures and we're calling upon the board to reject this illegal effort this ill funded effort um this misguided effort to overturn the first OPP opportunity that the people of Alama County have had in a 100 years to democratically elect a district attorney and what the public should know is that if this effort were to become uh successful then the public would literally be deprived of the right to elect the district attorney for another unknown period of time because ultimately the supervisors would then have to appoint my successor and the people would have been denied the right to elect someone who actually represents them who has been part of this community for decades almost 45 years and so we are calling upon the board to reject this um effort and we're calling upon the uh Fair political practices commission to take all steps to hold uh safe and Reviving The Bay Area and the supporters for the recall of Pamela price accountable under the finan campaign laws as well as um not allowing them to buy an election in Alam County our voices are raised up today I thank all of my supporters that have come here today to support me that are going to the Board of Supervisors today that are speaking out that are saying alamina county is not for sale we had a democratic election We the People spoke and the People's Choice should be allowed to uh complete the job that I was elected to do and that is what the public should know I was elected to do this job I am well equipped I am honored to serve as the first African-American female district attorney and I intend to do the best job that anyone that the people of alam County deserve and are entitled to and with that I thank you all we were taking questions yes Mr Price you say that the uh election was Democratic could you call the recall effort undemocratic why is that the question is why do I say that the election of November of 2022 was Democratic and soar thank you the question was why do I think that the election why do I say that the November of 2022 election was Democratic and the recall election is undemocratic number one in November of 2022 that election was a regularly scheduled election that the people were prepared for that the campaign laws applied to all of the candidates we had campaign limits there was a set procedure under state law that everyone had to follow and we won that election on the ground fair and square they the election was noticed according to the regular schedule so we knew two years before the election that there was going to be an election currently the recall election or the recall effort has been following a variety of different procedures when it started the registar voters decided that he was going to choose certain parts of the charter and ignore other parts of the charter so now what we have is if we're going to have an election it's a remix election and therefore that's undemocratic there has not been sufficient notice of it the regist has not followed the law uh consistently he's picked and he's cherry-picked what provision should apply and what Provisions should not and that is not a democratic process yes um do you know what spurred the investigation by the fppc was it was is it a complaint what spurred the investigation by the PC was our complaint on behalf of the protect the win campaign we knew early on that the funders of this undemocratic effort to recall um myself was funded improperly that they were not following the laws from the very beginning and so we filed a complaint with the fppc and it is now uh been deemed that there are sufficient grounds to open an investigation and can you expound a little bit about what it is that you believe their pack did wrong in terms of violating the law there are a number of things that we know of there I'm sure that there will be other things that the fppc will find we know that the pack that was used to raise money initially for safe was not properly designated There Are Rules as to how a pack can be designated and they did not follow those rules we know that there are rules that require packs to loose who their funders are and they did not follow that rule are there other things that you are alleging that the pack did wrong that was illegal besides not properly designating and not disclosing the funders those are the two things that are in the original complaint we are sure based and that was back in I believe that was in December was when that was filed because we know based on the subsequent conduct of it was December 7 we know based on this subsequent conduct of the pattern of the illegal conduct and manipulation and fraud in the process of the signature Gathering we would not be surprised if the fppc finds other violations uh what was illegal about the signature Gathering you said that was fraudulent bait and switch was used to the question was what was illegal about the signature Gathering one thing we know was there there was bait and switch where people would be asked to sign one petition and then and then underneath they were asked to sign another petition there were occasions where people reported that they signed the recall petition inadvertently when they realized that it was something they didn't want and they asked the petitioner gatherer to um take back their signature they were denied there were instances of our supporters from the protect the wi campaign who were physically threatened and a verbally assaulted called names there were uh fundamental the the fundamental problem with the way in which they did it was that under the charter anyone who gathered signatures in this community in this County had to be a registered voter in this County and we know that PCI Communications did not follow that rule that they brought people here from all over the country um that they brought people from all over the state who did not live here who have no interest in what happens here their only interest was getting paid and they misled people they lied to people about what the basis was many things were done in incorrectly and we reported those things and provided that evidence to the California Attorney General's office and also asked him to investigate as well as to register our voters and County Council and the United States Attorney and you said earlier that the registar is cherry-picking parts of the charter to apply to this specific recall and not why do you believe that the registar is for lack of a better term out to get you I don't say that the registar is out to get me I said that the registar is trying to conduct an illegal election I don't know what his motivation is but what the public should know is that the charter provided for 10 days for the registar to count the signatures the registar has not done that he absolutely he counted he determined they didn't have enough sign that should have been the end of it he decided to then pick or create some other procedure that is not actually in the state elections code the registrar decided that the people the charter the part of the charter that says this is the number of signatures that you have to have that that part was okay but in terms of the signature Gathering and being a resident of this County that that part was not okay the registar decided that you had to put your occupation on the petition which is required by the charter but then again when you have to count in 10 days he decided that was not okay so that's what I mean by cherry picking it's not that I attribute any personal ill will to the register I'm just saying we understand what the law is the charter is a written document and you have you can't follow it in some places and then not follow it in other places that's what cherry picking me we are not questioning the process we are we were we're questioning the motivation we're not question motivation we're questioning the process you had a question I'm sorry I just want to make sure it's a fair and Equitable as possible just like this process and then if it there's anybody else and then is it right then when you get back to you is that okay okay all right you have a question well just prior to taking office did you ever represent any of the uh recall organizers or anybody who's a part of the effort to recall not that I'm aware of I I don't know who part of the effort but not that I'm aware of I'm not sure who that might be not that I'm aware anybody else have any questions how do you feel personally about this whole process I believe that the people of Alama County have the right to elect their district attorney and I believe that what the public should know is that our democracy is at stake and as someone who has been fighting under the constitution for the Constitutional and for people's constitutional rights I am concerned for our community that people would be able to come in with money and overturn an election that people would be able to come in and bring people in who would lie and mislead the public I'm very concerned about that as every resident of alam County should be any any questions anyone else okay okay is there a real concern that a special election does not bring out the large number of Voters that as time the question is whether a special election poses a different uh risk of who gets to vote we know historically and from s research has shown that special elections tend to have a lower turnout and you know in voting in our country is a sacred right it's something that I take very seriously and that people died for unfortunately not enough people vote it is the one thing that we can do that speaks to how we want our community to be governed all politics is local and so it's so important that we have the opportunity to have regularly scheduled elections when people are TR trust the process that they know this is a time that we elect and we kind to we have the better opportunity to turn out more people because trust me I get it people's lives are busy and we often don't take advantage of the right to vote particularly in a special eltion so I think it is fair we had a general election we had a regularly scheduled election it is only fair that the people of Alama County number one that they right their vote should be respected and we want fair and square and then if there's going to be an election it certainly should be according to a regular schedule other just as a late person is right what is the main objective of this uh Rec man the question is what is the main objective of the recall it would appear to be to overturn the election of the first African-American woman in this seat there's no other basis for it we have not had time to have any real policy impacts this recall started immediately after I was elected so we were still literally unpacking boxes before when they started saying we have to get rid of her um and so it doesn't appear to have a basis other than a racism uh and ultimately I think what the public should know is again if I am recalled we don't know who the Board of Supervisors will appoint to take my place and there will not be another election for this seat until 2028 one what you supposed to have had done within a year what you supposed to had done well the question is what am I supposed to have done within a year the recall uh the effort to overturn the election started in January the first petition appeared online in February the first interview of one of the leading proponents of the effort to overturn the election uh was on Fox News in February and then in March they started organizing they had a rally in April and so it's not that I could have done something in the first year the question is what did I do in the first month that made me such a a you know a failure in their mind that it was absolutely necessary for us to spend to try to force the county to spend 15 to20 million to have another special election and that's what the board is being asked today by these folks to spend commit 15 15 to20 million of taxpayers dollars for a special election and we as I am aware as a County officer that and the head of a department that we have a $54 million deficit and so to ask the county all of us and the taxpayers and County agencies to add another 15 to20 million our budget deficit is completely unreasonable and shows how completely undemocratic this effort is okay this is not about Public Safety okay what happens now today the Board of Supervisors will make a fundamental decision about whether or not the Democratic process and the charter of alam County actually meant what it said or whether they are prepared to over overrule the charter without any legal basis for doing so so we will find out all right we have three minutes if this recall election ends up on a ballot whether it's a special election or gets pushed to November will you legally challenge a a recall we are consistently legally challenging the effort to overturn this election the uh my attorney Jim Sutton will be at the Board of Supervisors today we have consistently said to the Board of Supervisors this process is not following the law and you must follow the law unless and until a court tells you that the law doesn't apply and that has never happened and so we've been challenging this process really from day one as far as how this uh effort is supposed to go we saw very early on that there was a lot of uh activity that appeared to be questionable and then ultimately it became blatantly illegal throughout the signature Gathering process and again as the uh registar decided early on that anyone could pay people to come here and gather signatures without regard to what their what our concerns are that that was going to result in an illegal uh process does anybody investigate their register no not if the question is anyone investigating the regar we are uh we have been in touch with the secretary of state but unfortunately the registar of Voters only reports to the board of supervisor the only persons that can hold the register our voters accountable are the Board of Supervisors and so we're calling upon them today to hold the registar to the law of our County which is at the time that this effort was initiated and throughout this process until measure B became effective the law of our County was the charter and that's what should govern and it has been used Again by the registar he followed the charter in some ways and then the parts some parts he didn't follow so you can't pick and choose and remix the charter like that it doesn't work thank you all very much thank you all for coming uh you'll be hearing public comments uh from the public from the majority of the public uh we will have a lot of things uh to say in support of uh our historic uh Madam da price and if you have any questions uh you can contact her media team and we'll be sure to follow up thank you for coming okay

Channel: KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA

Views: 808

Keywords: KPIX 5 News Mid-day, Pamela Price, recall campaign, Alameda County, District Attorney

Id: tiLs4GknA7I

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024