If San Bernardino County voters reelect county auditor-controller/treasurer/tax collector Ensen Mason next Tuesday, the board of supervisors might try to remove him from office.
Dawn Rowe, chairperson of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. (File photo by Beau Yarbrough, San Bernardino Sun/SCNG)
At the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors’ May 19 meeting, Chairperson Dawn Rowe took direct aim at Mason.
“We’ve heard Mr. Mason make a lot of accusations directly to the media as well as on social media that I do not believe at all to have merit or truth in them,” she said.
Rowe asked county counsel Laura Feingold to bring back an item for the board to vote on in an upcoming meeting, in which the board could censure or even remove Mason from office.
Her request followed the board’s unanimous decision to vote down a request from Mason to retain an independent legal counsel during investigations the board opened into him at their Feb. 24 meeting. The investigations are looking into alleged conflicts of interest between his elected role and work as a financial advisor in private practice.
“Because my office is overseeing this investigation, we do have a conflict of interest,” Feingold told the board, “however, Mr. Mason’s request is specifically for counsel to represent his interest in the investigation. He is not requesting counsel to assist him in carrying out the official duties of his office.”
State law doesn’t require the county to pay for legal representation for elected officials when it’s not necessary to the performance of their duties, Feingold said at the meeting.
San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax collector Ensen Mason. (Courtesy of San Bernardino County)
“This is the last meeting before the election,” Mason told the board before the vote. “I don’t think everybody who’s listening knows what’s going on here, why this investigation is being performed and probably the motive behind the words you’re about to say.”
On Wednesday, May 27, Mason said the Board of Supervisors — all of whom have endorsed Mason’s rival, Rancho Cucamonga City Councilmember Ryan Hutchison — are involved in election year dirty politics.
“They’ve taken it up three notches and it feels like desperation,” he said. “They’ve taken it to a level I’ve never seen before.”
Rowe declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.
The investigations into Mason have been the subject of several attack ads mailed to San Bernardino County voters. Mason for his part, has sent a letter explaining his side of the story to voters.
But most of his focus has been on posting videos to his new Facebook page, along with blog posts to a website of the same name, TruthSBC.com.
“The county is kind of run by a conglomerate by people who have a lot of money,” Mason said Wednesday. “Unions, developers, big corporations with business before the county. … All of this money going into the campaigns, you might call it dirty money.”
Mason said he should have been making these posts “years ago,” and vowed to continue producing them, whether he wins the election or loses.
The investigations into Mason were opened by the board in February after several members of the public at the Board of Supervisors’ Feb. 24 meeting accused Mason of using his role as the county’s treasurer to influence the prices of stocks he advised his clients of his private financial services business to buy.
As county treasurer, Mason manages a $15 billion investment pool and is on the board that oversees the county’s $17.2 billion pension fund. According to Mason, none of his private clients at Mason Financial Services has ever held investments that are also in the county’s portfolio.
Mason’s interviews for the investigation were completed on May 11, according to Feingold. The documents produced by the interview are being evaluated by the county counsel’s office, she said, before a final report is submitted to the county. Citing attorney-client privilege, the county has declined to release the results of the investigation to him, Mason said.
And Mason has thrown his own punches this election season.
In March, Mason took Hutchison to court. He argued the challenger for his position doesn’t meet the legal requirements to serve if elected. California Government Code sets out specific requirements for both the positions of county auditor and for county treasurer, county tax collector or county treasurer-tax collector.
In April, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Tañada effectively ruled against both Mason and Hutchison, leaving Hutchison on the ballot but striking some of the allegations Hutchison had made against Mason from the ballot statement shown to voters.
The board of supervisors’ next scheduled meeting is June 9, a week after Election Day. The meeting agenda will likely not be released to the public until June 5. And potentially, it could include a vote to kick Mason from office based on his videos and comments to the media.
“Kicking somebody out of office for what they said, no matter what they said, I think everyone would agree that’s a Constitutional violation,” Mason said Wednesday. “That’s just so anti-American.”