A San Mateo County Community College District vice chancellor has been charged in a wide-ranging corruption scandal, as prosecutors alleged he steered an architectural contract to an unqualified firm, failed to report gifts and campaigned on district time.
José Nuñez, the district’s vice chancellor of facilities for the last 21 years, faces 15 felony counts in the case, including embezzlement and perjury charges, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. If convicted, Nuñez could be sentenced more than 10 years in prison, he said.
The charges, announced Tuesday, are the first in a two-and-a-half year investigation into corruption at the district. Prosecutors say the alleged misdeeds go back more than a decade and may involve some of the highest ranking officials at the district.
Officials with the district could not immediately be reached Tuesday afternoon. Nuñez was still listed as a staff member on a district website.
The district’s former chancellor, Ron Galatolo, remains under investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors are expected to make a decision on potential charges in that case as early as January.
Galatolo — who was fired in February after having served as chancellor for 20 years and, more recently, chancellor emeritus — was accused by the district’s board of receiving “high-end travel,” concert tickets and meals from college district contractors and not disclosing it to the state, as required. He was also accused of failing to disclose “apparent use of public funds for retirement incentives” as well as “undisclosed personal relationships with vendors.”
Authorities were tipped off to the case by an attorney working in the district’s human resources division, Wagstaffe said.
Nuñez helped steer an architectural contract for the Canada College Solar Photovoltaic Design-Build Project to the firm Allana, Buick and Bers, which was not qualified for the job, Wagstaffe said.
The veteran prosecutor also said Nuñez failed to report numerous gifts from district vendors from 2009 through 2020, as required by the state. Wagstaffe declined to specify what the gifts were.
Nuñez also is accused of campaigning for a board trustee, as well as state ballot measure, on district time in 2018 and 2019. The bond measure, Prop. 13, aimed to provide $2 billion for community college capital projects across the state. Voters did not pass it.
“It covered a lot of arenas, a lot of different types of corruption,” Wagstaffe said.
In filing the charges, Wagstaffe praised the district’s current board of trustees for being cooperative during the investigation.
“They have been very supportive and helpful for us in getting records and helping us dig into this corruption,” Wagstaffe said.
Nuñez was set to be arraigned Wednesday.
Source: www.mercurynews.com