Ethics board advances search for online critic 'Jay Baker'

Dec. 14—The Ethics and Campaign Review Board ruled Thursday a complaint filed by incoming City Councilor Pilar Faulkner against an online critic known as "Jay Baker" could move forward but two other complaints filed after the recent City Council election could not.

The board gave Chairman Paul Biderman authority to work with the city on a budget and contract for an independent investigator to discover Baker's identity or to potentially issue a subpoena for the same purpose.

However, the board dismissed two complaints, identical in form, filed by retired state employee Arcy Baca against former City Council candidates Phil Lucero and Faulkner on the grounds neither violated campaign rules.

A fourth complaint filed by Baca, this one against Geno Zamora, is still pending because the board lacked a quorum after three of the six members had to recuse themselves from the vote.

Jay Baker is an anonymous Facebook poster who is a frequent critic of Mayor Alan Webber's administration. In her complaint, Faulkner alleges the pseudonymous poster paid for digital ads without including identifying information required under city law and also "failed to file as a political committee, name a treasurer, and report campaign contributions and expenditures."

She asked the board to subpoena Baca, who she said she believes knows Baker's identity.

Via Facebook messenger, Baker denied purchasing any political ads.

"This is simply a fishing expedition by Mayor Webber and his sycophant Pilar Faulkner to prevent legitimate whistleblower activity," Baker wrote. "Rather than attempting to squelch the First Amendment rights of City Employees, perhaps Mayor Alan Webber and his appointees should focus on doing their jobs."

Faulkner said the Facebook page had posted many false claims about her during the election.

"I could have lost my clients because of this web page, or Facebook page," Faulkner, a lobbyist, said to the board. "And so I'm begging, basically, for the sanctity of our system that you guys subpoena and we find out who this is so we can put an end to this kind of dirty politics, for lack of a better word."

At the meeting, Faulkner reiterated her belief Baca would have information regarding Baker's identity. She also suggested the board could subpoena Facebook directly for the identities of the page's administrators or news sites where Baker had placed ads.

Baca, who was unable to attend the meeting, called Faulkner's assertion "ridiculous."

"All they're doing with this complaint is the mayor trying to figure out who Jay Baker is," he said. "But they're going about it the wrong way, because I sure as hell don't know."

Baca filed the three largely identical complaints against Lucero, Zamora and Faulkner, arguing they violated disclosure requirements by not breaking out individual expenses when filing campaign finance reports.

During discussion of the complaint against Faulkner, board members said they did not believe any rules had been broken.

"To have to report on each individual item, the cost of each one, would be pretty burdensome, and it's not part of the rule," Biderman said.

The board members unanimously voted to dismiss the complaints against Lucero and Faulkner.

Lucero did not attend the meeting but provided a written response to the board. Zamora attended and spoke briefly.

Biderman and Jose Puentes recused themselves from the cases involving Lucero and Zamora because both are acquaintances of political consultant Sandra Wechsler, who managed both candidates' campaigns. Kristina Martinez additionally had to recuse herself from Zamora's case because she donated to his campaign, which she said was an oversight as she has tried not to involve herself in any city races since joining the board.

That left the remaining three members unable to make a motion on Zamora's case because they did not have enough to form a quorum, though they agreed it should be dismissed.

Interim City Clerk Geralyn Cardenas said the city is in the process of searching for an additional member to join the board so it will be up to its full capacity of seven members. Once an additional member is added who can vote on the case, it will be brought back to the board.

The board scheduled a follow-up meeting to address Faulkner's complaint April 4.