Attorney Jose Luis Fuentes moved for and voted on the hiring of the conflicted law firm Siegel and Yee to “represent” Pacifica Foundation Radio in front of the California Attorney General in the upcoming correspondence audit, although Siegel and Yee is an employment law firm with no expertise in accounting or nonprofit law.
Fuentes began working at Siegel and Yee as an associate attorney in 2003 and remained in that position when he joined the Pacifica board in January of 2014, taking the seat formerly held by his boss Dan Siegel, who resigned in order to run for the mayoral position in Oakland (Siegel came in fifth).
California law is very clear that board members with “affiliations” to vendors must be removed from votes that would result in financial benefits for the affiliated vendor. Fuentes both moved the action and then voted for it. When challenged, he said that he had resigned from the law firm of Siegel and Yee in September of 2014.
However a call to Siegel and Yee’s Oakland office (510-839-1200) in the morning of January 9th, 2015 directed the caller to extension 224 where Mr. Fuentes announced that he was either out of the office or on the phone, and to leave a message after the beep.
A screen shot of the Siegal and Yee website taken on January 8, 2015 showed Mr Fuentes listed on the firm’s attorney list.
And Mr Fuentes sent email to the Pacifica board list from his jlf@siegelandyee.com months after his resignation date.
Fuentes email address 12-1-2014
Is this a Clintonesque definition of “working at”?
* Jose Luis Fuentes responded to this material by stating he was working with Siegel and Yee clients for no pay 4 months after his resignation date.