Magdalena Carrasco is calling Xavier Campos to the carpet, publicly demanding that her District 5 city council opponent address whether he had any knowledge of financial wrongdoings at the Mexican American Community Services Agency Youth Center (MACSA), his longtime former employer.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney authorized a raid on the MACSA Youth Center yesterday. MACSA is the subject of an ongoing investigation into how $400,000 of the former charter school’s employees’ pension funds disappeared.
Campos has continued to refuse to directly answer questions about his time at the controversial non-profit. With a little over two weeks left until the election, Carrasco says “We can no longer tolerate Mr. Campos’s claims of ignorance.”
Read Carrasco’s full press release below:
October 15, 2010 (San Jose) - District 5 Candidate Magdalena Carrasco challenges her opponent, former Chief Operating Officer of MACSA, Xavier Campos, to tell the truth about his involvement in the scheme to raid school employee pensions.
Armed investigators from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office seized evidence from the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA) Youth Center today. “Xavier Campos owes it to district 5 voters to tell the truth about his involvement to defraud teachers and school employees of their pension funds. Not only has this scandal affected the employees, the integrity of MACSA has been forever compromised. This organization that once represented a source of hope is now tainted. An explanation is long overdue, not only to the employees who were robbed, but to the families and children who depended on MACSA’s services and opportunities,” said Carrasco.
”We can no longer tolerate Mr. Campos’s claims of ignorance. As Chief Operating Officer of MACSA, Xavier Campos was clearly in a position to know about the misappropriation of funds from employee retirement accounts.”
I challenge Mr. Campos to stand before the media at a public forum and answer questions about his involvement in the MACSA scandal. Mr. Campos’ refusal to come clean is costing tax-payers tens of thousands of dollars to proceed with the investigation. It is fiscally irresponsible for Campos to allow this to continue. With indictments eminent from the District Attorney’s office, Xavier Campos should remove himself as a candidate to serve on the City Council.”
More information about Magdalena’s run for City Council can be found at her campaign website: http://www.votemagdalena.com
Interesting that when all the bankruptcy charges/stories were coming out on Carrasco, Campos’ refused to comment.
what did they need to comment about? They’re the ones who sent the mailers? It was their people THAT was the comment.
Campos is twofaced and hypocritical. They’re losing the public support and it won’t be long before all their supporters start distancing themselves and looking for excuses to explain away his loss.
Kudos to Chuck Reed for getting this one right. He backed Carrasco from the very beginning.
> Not only has this scandal affected the employees, the integrity of MACSA has been forever compromised. This organization that once represented a source of hope is now tainted.
Since MACSA is now an organization of such compromised virtue and tainted behavior, perhaps it’s time that it be taken over by an organization with greater public trust and respect.
For example, ACORN.
No. Wait.
Bad idea.
What Campos really owes the public is an apology for being such a weak leader and wimpy administrator all those years at MACSA. They run gang intervention programs and he says he was the specialist there yet anyone in the community of district 5 (especially around the MACSA youth center) know its a gang infested hang out. He never did anything to protect the kids there on site and in fact it became a recruiting ground and haven for gang members in the neighborhood.
He’s a mess in so many ways its hard to list them all. He’s lucky the DA is investigating the theft charge and not his success because there is plenty of evidence to convict him as a FAILURE
“They run gang intervention programs and he says he was the specialist there yet anyone in the community of district 5 (especially around the MACSA youth center) know its a gang infested hang out.”
I can’t testify to the veracity of those specific remarks, but I’ve often gotten the impression that “gang intervention programs” and “gang recruitment programs,” are, shall we say, difficult to distinguish from one another. As to why that would be, well, your guess is as good as mine, I suppose.
Looks like the Campos campaign is on life support… just barely. Unemployment will tick up a smidge with Magdalena handing Campos a defeat.
To the first comment posted here:
Whats interesting about Campos refusing to comment? Apparently he refuses to comment on just about everything. Does he not have any thoughts on matters of concern to the community?
I am waiting to see if he exudes leadership and actually stands up and answers his detractors. Even if all of his supporters are telling him to hide and be quiet and hope it all goes away in the 3 weeks leading up tot he election, doesn’t he want to be a true leader and say something? Carrasco shows more leadership in her willingness to confront difficult issues than Campos has shown in all his years in the public eye.
With pension costs rising at city hall, I am starting to think Mr. Campos may be just the man we need on the city council. If he can do for San Jose what he did for MACSA, our budget problems will be solved.
Always looking on the bright side, eh, SteveO.
Peter’s Principle,
applies here. xavier Compos, just happened to reach his.
Would all this be happening if Mr. Compos were not running for office?
I spent this great fall morning, thinking of leonard McKay, and all of his great posts on the history of our hey-days,here on San Jose Inside.
This MACSA story takes me back to 1991-92. Felix Alvarez, then a music teacher and the National Hispanic University and San Jose State teacher. He was employed at Macsa. His story as told to me was that he found the Macsa Building grant documents in the trash can. He took that proposal home and after much work submitted it and received the funding to build the Macsa building.
His Teatro De Los Povres was always embracing our community. He fought the proliferation of liquor stores in and around the Sal Si Puedes area.
Once Macsa was established he was dumped at MACSA and rejected as well by the MHC. His stand on alcohol made him unpopular at the MHC, Since he was against liquor being sold by Manny Diaz then his would be political opponent
It is interesting too that most of these so called hispanic leaders were sitting on the board of the Merc’s Nuevo Mundo. See (Mexican Muzzle – Metro) also see (Felix Alvarez- Metro) Which included Ester Medina Leader of MACSA.
I find it interesting that both non profits reached their Peter’s principle as community agencies.
I learned from Felix’s experiences what happens to those that raise awareness of important issues to our ailing community.
So it was of my making that when I saw the way money was being handled at MHC, I asked for a procedual method to audit all fund raising. It didn’t take the MHC Board long to kick me off the board. I was living proof that when you go against the clique you get wacked!
I was then free to continue my quest to ensure that the children in Sal Si Puedes got some help with the lack of compassing that seemed to never reach them, even after the Mexican Heritage Plaza and Garders were built a stone’s throw away.
Both non profits seemed to have had the same type of non-leadership. So it’s not surprising that we now must take this actions . The change is comming. Or is it?
In all of my years spent in the Eastside as a volenteer on boards and simply walking the slums of Sal Si Puedes raising awareness of the toxicicity of lead to our babies in that specific area. I keep my journals and photos to one day, document the way politics works for those that are shunted aside. This story seems to keep getting more bazzar.
Like Felix Alvarez’s work on MACSA, it was my greatest pleasure to ensure the votes to build the Plaza, only to experience the politics that took control and abuse it as they have done so many times before in other community projects.
This has been a good morning to reflect. There are too many stories yet to be told of our Eastside.
The Children of District 5 needs a champion, NOW!
Hank Lopez my childhood friend was a Champion in Sal Si Puedes to Seniors during Mayor Janet Gray Hayes’s term.After his passing at a young age , I took up his quest with the opposite side of life’s spectrum, Newborns.
Hank and Leonard this one’s for you my friends!
The Village Black Smith
Gil Hernandez
Interesting stuff Mr Hernandez. I’ve seen events put on by Mr Alvarez’ teatro group in past years. I had no idea this stuff was part of his history. Especially the MACSA information.
There does seem to be a clique or club of Latino leaders that think they have the market cornered on all issues Latino in San Jose. Its a shame that they see their ‘reign’ as being exclusive rather than inclusive. This undoing of MACSA will have sad consequences for the community at large. There are families that rely on their low cost programs to keep their kids safe and engaged. Mr Campos’ role in all of this is suspect. Not because he is an untrustworthy fellow but because he was the guy in charge. If he can’t see why the public would question his role then he isn’t very bright. If he thinks he owes no explanation to the public yet we still somehow owe him our vote then he’s not very smart.
Public servants are supposed to serve the needs of the community not the other way around. I think some of those in the Latino leadership clique think that they have a natural ‘right’ to lead the community without checking in with the community to see if they’re really meeting our needs.
Latin American countries have a long history of coups and revolution as a way to freedom and change. Maybe District 5 is about to wage a revolutionary war against that little clique. They should pay attention before they lose all their clout and influence. You have to earn our respect and trust and then you have to work and preform to keep it. I am willing to give Mrs Carrasco a chance and I hope others in my community will do so too.
“Latin American countries have a long history of coups and revolution as a way to freedom and change. Maybe District 5 is about to wage a revolutionary war against that little clique.”
Unfortunately, these same nations have tended to have a corollary history of exchanging one tyrannical body of leadership for another, similarly tyrannical, body of leadership. I think there’s a lesson to be learned from this as well.
Xavier Campos is a scam, and his sister is seriously following his footsteps. He has always has nothing to say and always puts of thing for never. Carrasco is who we need, she admits her mistakes and shows her strengths. Whatever happens, Campos will be affected as I have heard today he has molested a 15 year old girl during this past summer, and if it’s true, do we really want someone like this on our city council? No.