Where there’s smoke, there’s fire! And, so it goes with Veronica Vargas.

City Council Member Veronica Vargas’ code of ethics or lack thereof is a constant issue not only for the City, but also for the constituents she’s elected to represent. While it is true that she has supporters both in the City and the public (after all she got elected twice and was recently chosen Mayor Pro Tem), but her entire time on council has generated controversy.

She consistently and repeatedly tests conflict-of-interest principles, both ethically and transparently, while her city council actions make her a regular subject of FPPC investigations. And there is no better place to look at her broken moral compass than her dealings with the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority (SSJCFA), where her husband Patrick Vargas serves as the Chief Administrative Officer.

For those of you new to Tracy, Patrick Vargas has a long history with the Tracy Fire Department, including a 1995 felony conviction for wire fraud of $138,000 from the Tracy Fire Department. That’s right, he stole money from his own department who, in one of the most corrupt and confusing decisions by then Tracy Fire Chief Chris Bosch, kept Vargas employed during his four-month stint in prison. Read more about it here. It’s worth noting that Bosch was later fired in 2010.

The Tracy City Council makes decisions on Fire Authority matters. Over the years, questions over whether Veronica should recuse herself from these matters have risen. And, over these many years, Veronica has fought tooth and nail from recusing herself. In 2017, Steve Nicolaou called out Veronica on her making decisions about the Fire Authority of which her husband is paid. Read more about it here.

Nicolaou went so far as proposing a policy that would have restricted the members’ ability

to vote on issues that directly affect them and their relatives. It was none other than Vargas who, with the support of Young and Ransom, directed staff to draft such a policy for the city council to consider. However, when the drafted policy came back to council to consider, Veronica Vargas was the third vote to kill the proposal stating, “This is an additional restriction that we will put ourselves into if we choose to adopt something like this.” Read more about it here.

The issue was later raised again in 2019 but this time by now Mayor Nancy Young. Read more about it here. According to the article, Young asked, “I just have a question as far as a possible conflict of interest, because this particular position falls under the fire department, and just because Councilwoman Vargas’ husband is a Tracy Fire Department person, I’m just wanting to make sure if there was any type of conflict.” Veronica did not recuse herself.

Young’s point both in 2017 and again 2019 is that Vargas should recuse herself if anything from just an optics perspective. It doesn’t look good if a council member is voting on issues involving their spouse. It doesn’t look good. As quoted from the above article from an FPPC spokesman explained, “Err on the side of openness and transparency instead of secretiveness…Err on the side of avoiding potential conflicts of interest, as opposed to putting oneself into the potential of an appearance of conflict.” Openness. Transparency.

Veronica Vargas doesn’t get it. One can say that Patrick Vargas doesn’t get it either.