As irony would have it, the day this review is published marks the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. This was the pretext the George W. Bush administration claimed for launching the U.S. war on Iraq—a pretext that soon proved to be entirely erroneous.
The dogged U.S. insistence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that put lives at risk was the only tenuous thread by which the invasion of Iraq might be legitimized on the world stage. Of course, no WMDs were ever discovered, but by then, one of the most devastating and entirely illegal wars in which U.S. troops (among many others) have ever bled and died was well underway.
All of which provides background for Official Secrets. There’s nothing slick or flashy about Gavin Hood’s tightly constructed and efficient suspense drama. Less a conventional thriller than what you might call an investigative procedural, it zeroes in on a few intrepid individuals facing tough moral choices when they begin to uncover the campaign of misinformation and manipulation the U.S. is using to sell the war.
The movie tells the story of Katharine Gun, an unassuming translator with Britain’s information-gathering GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), whose decision to leak a sensitive memo to the press got her hauled up on charges of violating the Official Secrets Act. Katharine is played with stoic determination by Keira Knightley. Fearful of the consequences, yet outraged at how the public is being misled, she delivers a couple of potent speeches on loyalty to one’s country over one’s government provided by Hood and co-scriptwriters Sara Bernstein and Gregory Bernstein.
Katharine works at transcribing and filing documents in a large office of similarly anonymous drones toiling away in their glass cubicles. It’s 2003; Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and Colin Powell are all over TV advocating for war against Iraq in the wake of 9/11. The issue is about to come up for a vote at the United Nations Security Council, without whose approval the U.S. cannot lawfully invade Iraq. Then one day, a memo crosses Katharine’s virtual desk from U.S. Intelligence to their UK counterparts urging surveillance of Security Council members from swing vote nations in order to convince (read: blackmail) them to vote for the war.
Katharine is no radical peacenik, but she’s appalled at the idea of unleashing a war that’s justification has to be coerced by stealth. Especially as politicians continue to spread lies about phantom WMDs. As anti-war protestors march in the streets, she plucks up the nerve to burn a CD of the memo, print it out and hand it over to a friend with contacts in the press. No one is more shocked than Katharine when the memo is printed in its entirety on the front page of The Observer, in a story by journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith).
Katharine risks not only her own liberty and livelihood, but the safety of her Muslim-Turkish husband, Yasar (Adam Bakri). And while The Observer officially supports the Blair-Bush war effort, the editorial staff can’t resist so timely a story just days before the U.N. Security Council votes. Sadly, the leaked memo doesn’t stop the war, but Katharine stands by her actions and her principles all the way to the Queen’s Bench.
Ralph Fiennes is terrific, as usual, as Katharine’s lawyer, Ben Emmerson, an expert in human rights and international law. Other familiar faces doing a stand-up job are Matthew Goode as Bright’s newsroom colleague; Conleth Hill (Lord Varys from Game Of Thrones), unrecognizableas Bright’s feisty, foul-mouthed editor; and Jack Farthing (the odious villain in Poldark) as Katharine’s chipper cubicle-mate at GCHQ.
In a way, the movie almost makes one nostalgic for the Bush era, when the revelation of such bald-faced lies and corruption still had the power to incite outrage and moral courage. Those were the days.
OFFICIAL SECRETS
*** (out of four)
With Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, and Matthew Goode. Written by Sara Bernstein, Gregory Bernstein and Gavin Hood. From the book‘The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion’ by Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell. Directed by Gavin Hood. Rated R. 112 minutes.
Santa Cruz County live entertainment picks for the week of Sept. 11
WEDNESDAY 9/11
HONKY TONK
BREA BURNS
Drunken nights, wasted tears and lying lovers. When it comes to the Big Moods of country music, Brea Burns and the Boleros has them in spades. The Arizona honky-tonk foursome come to Santa Cruz this Wednesday as part of the Crepe Place’s ongoing “Western Wednesdays” series, and it’s sure to get the dance floor moving. Led by the fiery Burns—a melodious crooner with just enough twang to make a cowboy weep—the Boleros have been described as a mix of Hank Williams and Wanda Jackson. So, if the cheatin’, lyin’ and cryin’s got you down, welcome in, cowboy/girl/nb. MIKE HUGUENOR
Gogol Bordello, a merry band of folk-punk misfits, scrawled its mission statement in ballpoint, promising to bring chaos, spectacle and optimism to the masses drowning in the sludge of irony and cynicism. They swore to use trans-global music to inform their energetic, spontaneous cabaret tunes, with the intent to provoke, alarm, engage, and incite a multi-cultural mosh-skank pit on the dance floor. They cast their lot with the immigrants, the unseen, the wanderers, and the creatives who’ve yet to succumb to ennui. They wrote it all down on a piece of paper, then crumpled that paper up. AMY BEE
9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $35. 429-4135.
JAZZ
THEO CROKER
Not content to maintain his status as one of jazz’s most prodigious trumpeters under 40, Theo Croker has revealed himself in recent years as a producer, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist with his own vision for fusing jazz, hip hop and R&B. His latest album Star People Nation is the work of an ambitious artist brimming with melodic hooks and tasty grooves. The fact that he’s firmly grounded in jazz’s deep roots—his grandfather was the legendary trumpeter Doc Cheatham—provides Croker’s music with considerable heft. His tough working band features keyboardist Michael King, bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Michael Ode. ANDREW GILBERT
7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $31.50 adv/$36.75 door. 427-2227.
FRIDAY 9/13
COMEDY
REGGIE STEELE
Reggie Steele has dabbled in the world of acting during his comedic career, even playing a basketball referee on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. The role came easy for him, considering he spent the first part of his life as an athlete. Now, Steele is a mainstay of the Bay Area comedy scene and tours the country with his profanity-free act, showcasing charming, relatable stories and situational humor, all told with playful, engaging enthusiasm. Steele’s a truly skillful storyteller, so you’re gonna wanna get those tixs, but also check out his YouTube video, “Black Guys on a Beautiful Day.” AB
7 & 9:30 p.m. DNA’s Comedy Lab, 155 S. River St., Santa Cruz. $20 adv/$25 door. 900-5123.
SATURDAY 9/14
FOLK
BACKYARD BIRDS
Locals Jean Catino, Linda Baker and June Coha met in the Santa Cruz ukulele scene (a vibrant scene here in town). They enjoyed playing their instruments and hanging out, but mostly they loved to harmonize together. Just like that, the Backyard Birds was born. The group expanded to a five piece with Larry Prather and Linc Russin, and soon they were able to perform gorgeous folksy renditions of all their favorite obscure pop, soul, jazz, rock, and folk tunes. The harmonies have only gotten better the more they’ve played—a local treat. AARON CARNES
If it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, we totally get why there would be a group there called the Secret Nudist Friends. But this isn’t a mysterious cult of birthday suit enthusiasts; rather, it’s a fun-loving, queer psychedelic/garage-rock band out to make the world dance its problems away. For fans of King Gizzard, Burger Records or anyone proudly waving their freak flag, SNF will be booty shaking in Santa Cruz like it’s 1978. Check out their “Something on Your Mind” video if you want to get a sampling of their swaying-hip action. MAT WEIR
Calling all heshers, stoners, long-haireds, witches, wanderers, and mystic rockers! Dead Feathers is coming to the Blue Lagoon. With so many wanna-be vintage bands out there, Dead Feathers is a refreshing breath of smoke-filled air carried over a sonic river of groove. Black Sabbath and Roky Erickson are clear influences, but the group’s ability to mimic the stoned-out rock sound of the ’70s is so authentic and heartfelt, you have to wonder if they were born in the ’50s and came to us in a beaten-up time machine. MW
8 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $5. 423-7117.
TUESDAY 9/17
AMERICANA
TONY FURTADO
Tony Furtado is in that very small category of musicians that can be referred to as a “banjo virtuoso.” He gets this title not just for his mind-melding chops, but his innovative approach to the instrument. He worked with Bela Fleck in his early years, so it’s no mystery why he doesn’t see the banjo strictly as a tool for foot-stomping bluegrass jams. Furtado has his own style that melds hyper bluegrass finger-picking, classic country melodies and progressive rock experimentalism. He also plays the guitar, too. AC
7:30 p.m. Michael’s On Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $17 adv/$20 door. 479-9777.
INDIE-POP
ELDER ISLAND
Those who prefer their dance music a little on the brooding side would be wise to check out Elder Island. Theirs is a moody, soulful dance music drenched in fog and stray beams of neon light. After two critically acclaimed EPs, the Bristol trio finally decided to drop a full length this year with The Omnitone Collection, an album whose imagery is like the missing link between ‘60s space-age design, and the home shopping networks of the ‘80s. They’re like the missing link between Amy Winehouse and Burial—dark, soulful, and weirdly hypnotic. MH
9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz. $15. 429-4135.
It’s never easy for an organization to move on from its leader of eight years, says Bella Babot, a trustee for the Museum of Art and History (MAH).
But it is especially difficult, Babot explains, when a nonprofit’s leader is a visionary who’s as dynamic as Nina Simon, the former executive director of the Santa Cruz MAH, who announced in November that shewould be moving on from her post.
“Every organization has got to push reset and understand exactly what the role is, because under Nina, it’s one role,” she says. “But maybe there’s an evolution around there. Maybe we want to tweak that role a little bit.”
Those “tweaks” have apparently proven tricky to master to everyone’s liking. That’s evidenced by the fact that the museum still hasn’t hired a full-time executive director 10 months after Simon told the board she was leaving.
The museum, no doubt, has weathered more challenging storms in the past. It was in financial turmoil when Simon was hired in 2011. She quickly righted the ship, and under her leadership, the budget grew to $2.5 million from $700,000 in 2011, says Interim Executive Director Antonia Franco, who served on the board for three years before she was appointed to the temporary post in July. Attendance grew exponentially over Simon’s eight-year run, Franco adds.
In addition to the overall positive trends, there were several noteworthy moments in Simon’s tenure at the MAH. The museum brought back to Santa Cruz the first surfboards ever surfed outside of Hawaii. Those boards were shaped locally and ridden by three Hawaiian princes at Santa Cruz’s San Lorenzo River mouth in 1885. The museum also has hosted social justice-oriented exhibits, including one about the challenges of foster youth and another about seniors in isolation that’s on currently on display. Among her many other successes, Simon spearheaded the reinvention of Abbott Square—from a quiet, mostly forgotten concrete slab into a food court and bustling community space.
Simon’s departure, though, left a vacuum in an organization known for thinking big. Now, a new letter from influential county residents is attempting to push the MAH in a different direction. With no full-time director at the helm, the MAH’s leaders, donors and fans have begun asking big-picture questions—about management, transparency, what constitutes art, and the balance between honoring the past and looking into the future.
CURATING SYSTEM
On Sept. 3, Former MAH Board President Wayne Palmer emailed a letter to the museum’s current Board of Trustees.
He included a statement with 101 signatures from former board members, donors and community members, including former Redevelopment Director Ceil Cerillo, former Capitola Mayor Gayle Ortiz, and philanthropists Pat and Rowland Rebele.
The statement argues that the museum has strayed from its art and history focus.
Palmer admits that, in a way, he and his long list of acquaintances are “stirring the pot” with this letter. He assumes that current staffers and ardent supporters of the MAH have scoffed at it, and are snickering about how he doesn’t understand the changing world of art.
Since early April, the exhibit We’re Still Here: Stories of Seniors and Social Isolation has been on display in the second-floor Solari Gallery, offering an examination of how an aging population experiences loneliness. Artists took input from 186 senior citizens for interactive features, including rotary phones that guests can hold up to their ears to listen to pre-recorded words of wisdom from local seniors. If I’m being honest, I found it hard to walk through the exhibit without getting a little choked up.
But critics like Palmer believe that type of exhibit would be better suited for a community forum like Louden Nelson Community Center, not an art museum.
In recent years, the museum also overhauled its history gallery to diversify and incorporate more voices from more people of color.
However, some community members, like the History Forum’s Cynthia Rees—a longtime donor—say they are frustrated by how the transition was handled. Rees says the History Forum should have been asked for more input. “It’s unrecognizable compared to what it used to be,” she says.
Simon has not read the letter. She glanced briefly at it and decided that she has heard similar criticisms for years about the changes at the museum. She says she always focused on bringing in high-quality exhibits, even if some of them are different than shows that may have come through in the past.
“Our commitment to great art and history hasn’t wavered, but many of the great shows we showcased were by people who were not white, who were not men, and people who had radical new ways of looking at things,” Simon says. “I don’t see this as an issue about art and history. I see this as an issue of elitism and gatekeeping.”
The MAH, she notes, has become renowned worldwide as a vibrant, multicultural venue that gives a platform to new voices and welcomes those who may have never set foot in a museum before. The British Arts Marketing Association released a case study of the MAH’s business and engagement strategies in 2015, deeming its approach “future-proof” in a changing world.
Simon has continued evangelizing her vision for museums with a new nonprofit she’s started called Of/By/For All, a movement she’s working on to help make public institutions “more relevant, resilient, and inclusive,” according to its website.
PLAQUE IS WHACK
In the wake of the letter to the MAH, critics are talking about other issues as well.
One issue raised by Palmer and donors like Rees is financial transparency. Although some figures are available on the museum website, the MAH hasn’t released an annual report in recent years. Franco is working on a “State of the MAH” report, which will come out in the next couple of weeks. She says that the museum will release a full report in June 2020.
The statement from Palmer also discusses plaques with donor names that are no longer hanging in the museum. MAH Trustees Peter Orr and Ken Doctor both say the donor names came down, and that, however that decision transpired, it was wrong. Franco says she is “doing the research right now” to determine how many names came down.
Simon insists that if any names did come down, it wasn’t during her tenure. The one exception, she says, is that, in the transition to build Abbott Square, staff did mistakenly take down a sign honoring Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson’s family, whose generous gift helped make the whole museum possible in the first place. When she realized what had happened, Simon worked with McPherson to put a new sign up. She says that she’s found no record of any of the other donor names coming down at the MAH during her tenure.
When reached for comment, McPherson reviewed his own records and sent GT a list of names that he says did come down from the walls. “I would like to see them recognized,” McPherson says. “What happened or when it happened—I don’t know,”
Historian Geoffrey Dunn, who has supported Simon, thinks the criticisms have been overblown and unfair.
“The complaints sound somewhere between bullshit and imbecilic to me,” Dunn, a GT contributor, writes in an email. “I could ask why organizations like the History Forum and the Santa Cruz Symphony aren’t more inclusive and reflective of the diversity of Santa Cruz County, but I don’t, because what’s the point? I’m intolerant of pettiness. If any plaques were taken down, put them back. Issue an annual report and financials. Simple. This isn’t rocket science. May 100 flowers bloom.”
FUN DIRECTION
Late last year, the MAH formed a recruitment committee—made up primarily of board members, but also with a couple of community members—to search for the museum’s next executive director.
Before they got started, the museum hired a recruitment firm. Committee members took input from the rest of the board, from donors and from staff on what they would all like to see in the next director and where they think the museum should go.
The committee did a few rounds of interviews, bringing in community members to help with interviews, and some staffers came to meet the candidates, says Trustee Ken Doctor, who led the recruitment committee. Committee members winnowed down the field from dozens of applicants, he says, to just two finalists, both of them women. But when the staff found out who the two finalists were, some administrators expressed dismay, and threatened to shut down the museum in protest, Doctor says. Both applicants withdrew their names from consideration.
“That pretty well chilled the process,” Doctor says. “As you can imagine, there was a lot of consternation about it.”
That is when the museum pushed the “reset” button, as Babot puts it. She adds that one of the two finalists was unsure if she was really ready to move to Santa Cruz, anyway—which was another reason to put everything on hold.
Going forward, Babot and fellow Trustee Peter Orr say that with the MAH under Franco’s careful guidance, trustees have the opportunity to take their time in finding its next leader—with a healthy dose of community involvement and discussions about what’s next.
“Everyone’s heart’s in the right place,” Orr says, “and we’re gonna restart the process when we’re ready, when we’re comfortable, and we have all our ducks in alignment.”
Santa Cruz is still awaiting answers as details about local victims of a Labor Day boat fire near the Channel Islands continue to trickle in.
Soquel Creek Water District has confirmed that Vaidehi Campbell, a communications specialist for the district, was one of nearly three dozen victims in a predawn fire aboard the dive boat Conception off the coast of Santa Cruz Island on Monday, Sept. 2. The sudden eruption of flames, which is under investigation, claimed the lives of 34 people onboard for a three-day diving expedition just off the coast of Santa Barbara.
Campbell worked in several departments during her 18 years with the district. She launched a geographic information system platform and became an expert in many technology tools, according to a press release from Melanie Mow Schumacher, Soquel Creek Water’s manager of special projects and communications.
Early Monday morning on the boat, five crew members who were upstairs and awake managed to escape the 75-foot vessel alive. But downstairs in the sleeping quarters, all 33 passengers and one crewmember died.
Among those killed were two students of Pacific Collegiate School. The Santa Cruz charter school has identified students Berenice Felipe, Tia Salika and Salika’s parents—Steve Salika and Dianna Adamic—as four people on board. Another local, Kristy Finstad, co-owned Worldwide Diving Adventures, the company that chartered the dive. She was also a victim of the fire over Labor Day weekend of the recreational scuba-diving trip around Channel Islands National Park.
On Friday, USA Today reported that the victims likelydied of smoke inhalation, not burns. The Associated Press also reports that Truth Aquatics Inc., which owned the boat,filed a measure in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to limit its liability from lawsuits that families of the victims may attempt to bring after the tragedy by leveraging a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law.
I can’t say enough good things about Brandon Armitage and the wines he makes. This dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool winemaker strives to produce only the best.
His newly released Heart O’ The Mountain 2017 Pinot Noir Estate Blend is a masterful example of superb Pinot. But then, the vineyard in Scotts Valley is situated on prime land on what was once the historic Alfred Hitchcock estate. Now taken care of by the talented Armitage, the property produces more voluptuous grapes than ever—all harvested by hand during the cool, early-morning hours.
Bursting at the seams with dark fruit, earthy flavors and rich aromas, this world-class 2017 Pinot Noir ($48) is available at the Armitage tasting room in Aptos Village. Another chance to sample will be when Armitage pours his wines at the Harvest Dinner (see below) at Lester family’s Deer Park Ranch.
Armitage Tasting Room, 105C Post Office Drive, Aptos, 708-2874. Open Wednesday through Sunday; check armitagewines.com for hours.
Tiny Winery Concerts
Armitage Wines has also launched a Tiny Winery Concert series at the Hitchcock estate now home to the vineyard. Winemaker Armitage says that the concerts are a way to combine his love of music and wine while bringing joy. The next concert presents Keith Greeninger from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept.14.
Celebrate harvest under the stars at Deer Park Ranch in Aptos with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Experience an evening of award-winning wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains made by a dozen local winemakers, including host Lester Estate Wines. Paired with delicious food prepared by Brad Briske of Home restaurant in Soquel. Proceeds benefit Hospice of Santa Cruz County.
Pinot Noir & Chardonnay Harvest Dinner, Sunday, Sept. 8, 4-9 p.m. Deer Park Ranch, 2000 Pleasant Valley Rd., Aptos. 685-8463, scmwa.com. $150.
Orlando Osorino, founder of Central Coast pop-up Tortas Al 100, is focused not only on reinventing the torta, but also on his community.
In addition to making the rounds at breweries like Beer Mule, Elkhorn Slough Beer Co., Shanty Shack, Fruition, and Corralitos Brewing, Osorino uses Tortas Al 100 events to support local causes. He spoke to GT about building the perfect torta.
When did you come up with the idea for Tortas Al 100?
ORLANDO OSORINO: We are involved with the community with a civil rights organization, and we do a lot of community service. Periodically we attend city council meetings, and last year, they were proposing that they wanted to start a flea market at the Salinas Rodeo.
I had always had aspirations to be a business owner, and I always wanted to go into the food industry, because I know what I like. I know what I like to eat. I have a crazy idea of what other people might like to eat.
How did you come up with your name?
We wanted to do something more modern, and more the trend that is going on right now in Mexico. There’s slang words where they will be like ‘el viejon’ or ‘el patron’ or different things that kinda mean either power or hip or modern. It was funny, we were just sitting there, and my wife was just like, “What about Tortas Al 100?”
What makes a good torta?
I think the principal things that make a good torta is going to be fresh produce. And when you are cooking with fresh meats, good seasoning, right temperatures. You don’t want to have your meat overly dry, you don’t want to have your salsas overly spicy. I think that the bread definitely ties everything together. We don’t actually use bolios. A lot of people use bolios. We use talera bread. The talera bread is a lot less hard and crunchy on the outside.
What’s your craziest torta?
A: The Don Cheeto. We put chipotle mayo on the bun and we toast it. Of course the mayo has a little bit of fat in there, so it gets a nice crisp. Then we spread the bean spread on there, and then we throw cheese down directly on the grill so it gets nice and bubbly. We put bacon on there, carne asada and then we put it on your bread. Then we put a thin vlayer of nacho cheese, put the hot cheetos so they don’t go anywhere. Put some more nacho cheese on it, then we put lime-pickled onions. And then avocado, some more chipotle mayo. It’s a wrap.
This area isn’t known for producing a lot of YouTube stars, which makes Louie Castro’s story rather remarkable. Actually, there are a lot of remarkable things about Castro’s story, not the least of which is that he has found his online fame in Watsonville, without the similarly lifestyle-tech-obsessed community around him that one would find in Silicon Valley or L.A. That’s one of the challenges that he talks about in this week’s cover story by Denize Gallardo. I don’t want to spoil too much, but he does also do his makeup on a Boardwalk ride—he probably merits a cover story for that alone. But his views on YouTube as a career (or at least a launching pad), being gay in Watsonville, his cultural identity and personal style make this a fun and fascinating profile that offers some local insight into the phenomenon of online celebrity.
One other thing to mention this week: I’ll be judging moles at the Mole and Mariachi Festival on Saturday at the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park; come say hi in between sampling the deliciousness. I promise not to dance!
An $18,000 outside investigation ordered by city manager Martín Bernal against Santa Cruz City Council members Chris Krohn and Drew Glover has ended in practically nil findings of gender discrimination or other harassment by the accused public servants. The independent investigator in fact recommended that the city council should have sought mediation and conflict resolution services before hiring him or any further investigation like his. But for the second time, Good Times writer Jacob Pierce has successfully blown up trivial—almost non-existent—incidents into semblances of major violations of some vague code of civil conduct possibly located in City Manager Bernal’s back pocket. The real issues at this point aren’t whether some councilmembers are arguing too vigorously for their point of view, which is to consider real reforms. It is that under the city manager form of government as practiced in Santa Cruz, city manager Bernal and his loyal department heads have pretty well taken over all major policy decisions; e.g., whether market-rate housing will be built on our precious remaining land for the well-to-do from over the hill, or whether we as a city try to remedy our severe shortage of affordable housing for middle-income, low-income, and very-low-income residents. City Manager Bernal and department heads regularly plop into the council agenda for rubber-stamp approval and zero time for serious consideration: plays for luxury developments, plus countless other city projects that should have serious consideration time but have no place for extensive review by our elected representatives. That’s how the actual business of the city council is never adequately considered by council itself, because the council minority has complete control over setting agenda items, and that minority has been elected by big real estate money to fast-track our city into a profit-making machine for big developers and businesses.
Hence the witch hunt initiated by Mayor Watkins and allies, and seized upon by city manager Bernal to generate sound and fury over imagined ethics violations by the most ethical councilmembers. Glover and Krohn, along with Sandy Brown, are trying to build a city that has a healthy, greenhouse-gas-free environment with room for firefighters and police, teachers, nurses and doctors, as well as health care aides, restaurant workers, hospitality, construction and maintenance workers, craftspeople, artists and musicians, poor people and marginalized communities like immigrants and people of color, and the disabled and elderly, all currently being swiftly shut out by city’s staff and the conservative council minority’s sellout of our common heritage to wealthy developers.
Their flaks in print media like Good Times and the Sentinel don’t see the water rising around them, as they ignore humane social policies and avoid effective action against the storms—physical, social and economic—arising from climate change now full-flowing all around us.
Nonetheless, a perfect storm is rising. Your focus on a tempest in a teapot is helping to build that storm. Take heed of it.
Name Withheld By Request
Santa Cruz
Re: The Doors
Drunk or sober, old or young, I feel Jim would have stayed true to that core essence of creative integrity. Truth and authenticity are a frequency, not an ideal or philosophy. It’s what you “are,” not something you’re trying to be. The great artists have very little shades of gray. It makes them great. It makes them dangerous. It makes them burnout, often too soon.
— Eric Sander Kingston
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
September is Preparedness Month, both nationally and locally—as proclaimed by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. Residents can download the Code Red app to make sure they receive emergency notifications. The County Office of Emergency Services maintains a number of preparedness resources for residents and their families at santacruzcounty.us/OES. It’s a good time to look at evacuation routes, think about plans for alternative shelter and consider what to do about any medical, prescription and dietary needs.
GOOD WORK
Santa Cruz’s highest-paying occupations by median wages are in the areas of computers and mathematics ($77,000), management ($63,000) and architecture and engineering ($56,000). That’s according to Santa Cruz County’s 2019 State of the Workforce, done by Beacon Economics. Residents age 25 and above who commute out-of-county earn significantly higher wages than counterparts who work closer to home. Other geographic disparities continue as well; North County jobs outnumber South County ones by nearly 5-to-1. View the full report at santacruzhumanservices.org/WorkforceSCC.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“No matter how good the video on YouTube is, don’t read the comments—just don’t, because it will make you hate all humans.”
The ultimate film event for all who love the sea, the International Ocean Film Tour brings the beauty and fascination of the oceans to the big screen. The program consists of five films from oceans around the globe.
INFO: 7 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. 423-8209, riotheatre.com. $18.
Art Seen
Chetan Tierra
Local, nationally acclaimed artist Chetan Tierra is a Yamaha Artist, pianist and composer who has delighted audiences across the globe in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and on radio and TV. Chetan began playing the piano immediately after birth, and later his father would tie him to his lap, point to the piano keys, and Chetan would play. He has since performed on some of the world’s most renowned concert stages and made appearances in the most rigorous and prestigious international piano competitions ,such as Queen Elisabeth, Van Cliburn, Jose Iturbi, Hilton Head, New Orleans, Unisa, and Seoul.
INFO: 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8. Peace United Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. distinguishedartists.org. Donation.
Saturday 9/7 and Sunday 9/8
San Francisco Mime Troupe Anniversary Show
It’s no small feat to manage to live in the Bay Area for even a few years, let alone 60. This year, the San Francisco Mime Troupe is celebrating its 60th anniversary of free political theater in Bay Area and Northern California parks. The troupe will visit Santa Cruz with its latest swashbuckling musical, Treasure Island. The mythical island in the San Francisco Bay is under siege—by developers! Developers … they scour the map looking for cities with fat purses, ready to be plundered, and Treasure Island may be next.
INFO: 3 p.m. San Lorenzo Park, 34 Dakota Ave., Santa Cruz. sfmt.org. Free.
Friday 9/6
Lille æske Grand Re-Opening
Lille æske 2.0 (as the owners have been calling it) is getting ready to reopen the doors, and will be kicking off the fall season with a First Friday group show and grand opening party. Titled Transitions, they will be showcasing works by more than 20 local artists that inspire or interpret the fitting theme: change, evolution and becoming something else. The ladies of Sugar by the Pound will be filling the space with music, and small bites and refreshments will be available for purchase.
Santa Cruz’s Mole and Mariachi Festival is one of the summer’s iconic events. A benefit for nonprofit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks in support of Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, proceeds from the festival fund educational programs, visitor services and restoration at the Mission. Talk about eatin’ good for the cause.
INFO: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, 144 School St., Santa Cruz. Free entry/$10 for six tasting tickets.
Sunday 9/8
Farmworker Reality Tour
This tour will give participants a rare inside view of the lives of the farmworkers who grow our fruits, vegetables and nuts. Led by Felton’s Center for Farmworker Families and Watsonville climate action nonprofit Regeneración, the tour will begin on a lovely agroecological farm off San Andreas Road in Watsonville, where the group will hear the story of a family’s border crossing and observe skills involved in picking strawberries. Next, we’ll tour the state-run Buena Vista Migrant Camp, then end with a visit to the home of a single farmworker mom and share a delicious Mexican meal.
INFO: 3-7 p.m. in Watsonville; address provided upon registration. 216-8772, farmworkerfamily.org/events. $20-30 donation.
Ever try doing your makeup on a roller coaster at the Boardwalk?
Louie Castro has.
In one video on his YouTube channel, which has 1.8 million followers, the 20-year-old Watsonville native scrambles to do his eyebrows mid-ride, juggling a small pot of Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow filler and dabbing at his already perfect brows between screams. Halfway into a turn on the Undertow, the online personality known for beauty and confessional videos explains, he had dropped his eyebrow pencil.
“I had to do it with my finger!” Castro tells the camera.
Since he uploaded the video last summer, it’s been viewed 1.2 million times. Other videos have racked up as many as 5 million views on Castro’s channel “Louie’s Life,” which he started five years ago when he was a student at Watsonville High.
His makeup and talon-like acrylic nails are always immaculate, but the titles of Castro’s most popular videos reveal his relatable and personality-driven approach: “Sneaking Out at 3 a.m. Con Mis Hermanas” [with my sisters], “Latinas Going Through a Breakup” and “Losing My Virginity in 6th Grade?! Storytime.”
Castro’s popularity has grown along with a diverse generation of fashion and beauty social media influencers and vloggers, who have turned get-ready-with-me makeup videos and dramatic retellings of deeply personal stories into full-time jobs. For Castro, the notoriety also comes with daily reminders of his internet celebrity, like getting swarmed by young fans at Starbucks or setting up meet-and-greets at local events like the summer Strawberry Festival.
More recently, Castro has crossed over to TV, making appearances on Univision and attending movie premieres and award shows like the Latin Grammys. His pictures on Instagram routinely get hundreds of thousands of likes, and videos with millions of views have earned him advertising income and provided inspiration for merch, like hoodies and lanyards printed with his signature slogan: “The Baddest Perra” [the baddest bitch].
True to the way he speaks offline, most of Castro’s videos are in Spanglish, covering topics like chisme (gossip), Mexican food “muckbangs” (eating and chatting on camera), or acting out Spanish skits. Castro was born and raised in Watsonville, but he weaves in elements of his Mexican heritage from his dad, a shoe repair man, and his mom, who works at a café. For advertisers, the whole setup translates to accessible content for fast-growing Latino communities.
Despite his success, Castro has chosen to stay close to home—as much as he can, anyway. He thought about moving to L.A. after he says he was bullied in high school, then briefly studied film at CSUMB, but Castro still lives in Watsonville with his parents and two sisters (the oldest, Yoatzi, is a fellow YouTuber with almost 400,000 subscribers of her own). More and more, he finds himself commuting to L.A. for industry events.
In a Q&A, Castro spoke to GT about growing up on the Central Coast, how he got over the fear of wearing makeup in public, and how he actually makes a living online.
How did your YouTube channel start?
LOUIE CASTRO: I’ve had my YouTube channel for about 5 years now. [Before that] I would make videos on Instagram. They were like 15 second videos—remember when they would only let you do 15 seconds? So it was around that time, and I started getting a lot of comments: “Oh my gosh, you should make a YouTube channel.” But I didn’t even really know what YouTube was, because I would use YouTube for music videos and to find lyrics and stuff like that. My little sister was the one who was super into YouTube, so she was like, “Yeah, there are people who make videos on YouTube. They are called YouTubers.”
When did you notice that you were gaining a lot of subscribers?
It wasn’t until I made my quinceañera video, “How to Dance at Quinceañeras.” I felt like I kinda blew up from there.
Who were some of the influencers that inspired you to start?
I loved watching Bretman Rock (a similarly flamboyant, makeup-savvy Filipino vlogger). The way he would make his videos, it felt more like he was connecting with people. Because my videos back then were just very random, like “Oh my god, I’m just gonna record me dancing,” or “I’m gonna record me doing something dumb.” But when I would see him make his videos, it kinda made me see it differently, like it was a good way for me to connect with people.
What year did you come out as gay?
I wanna say, like, my sophomore year of high school. I came out to my friends first, and then slowly started coming out to the rest of my family. I think that they were shocked at the fact that I said it, not necessarily being like, “What? We didn’t know.” Because my mom told me, “Ever since you were little, like, I just knew you were,” and so did my sisters.
What was your experience at Watsonville High?
I hated high school, like super bad. Like, “Mom, I really don’t wanna go to school.” Sometimes I would try to skip class, but then I’ve always been super into my education. There was a lot of bullying during school, especially from YouTube. It was more like, “Oh my god, what are you doing? Like, that’s so weird. Why are you making videos on YouTube? No one is going to watch it.” So it was like a lot of hate coming from, you know, other classmates or random people. Even my teachers! Like teachers would play my videos in class and like to make fun of me for doing it, or sometimes quote me on certain parts of my videos, and the rest of the class would just find it funny.
I think because of that, it was also so hard for me to be myself in high school. I was a different person. Not because I was like, “Oh, I’m trying to be different,” but it was scary to be myself when all you get is hate, hate, hate, hate. So I was just kinda hidden, keep it to myself. But I definitely do think after high school was when I was like, “I don’t give a fuck. I’m gonna do my own thing.” My senior year I definitely kinda slowly started wearing more makeup. I started dressing the way I wanted to dress. Still had a very tiny friend group.
When was your first experience trying on makeup?
I did a video on my YouTube channel (with) my older sister, who is super into makeup. She did my makeup, and it was so weird—like, so weird. She did full face, contour and lashes. And I had never tried on makeup before that, so to have no makeup, then like slap on every single product, I was like, “Oh my god.”
And even in that video, my sister had asked me, “Would you ever do makeup?’ I was like, “No.” But then slowly, as time went by, I started picking up more products, like I’d take my mom’s foundation to cover like a pimple. The first thing I ever really did was my eyebrows—started filling my eyebrows, and then little by little just started buying more and more.
HOMETOWN HEROLouie Castro in downtown Watsonville. PHOTO: TARMO HANNULA
What was your experience first going out in public in makeup?
Maybe two or three years ago was the first time. I was always used to wearing foundation and my eyebrows; that was it. But this time specifically, I put on concealer for the first time, and contour. That already made a huge difference to my face. I remember looking in the mirror and being like, “It’s so scary. Like, I don’t want to wear this out.” My sisters came and were like, “No, just do it! If you like it, just go out.”
We went to the mall, and I remember being so scared, because I felt like I was being so judged. For one, already, being gay caught a lot of people’s attention. People might not always support it, but wearing makeup on top of it I feel like is even scarier. You know, it puts you more out there. I remember walking around and being super duper nervous—every five seconds checking either the mirror or my phone to make sure I looked good. I even went into Sephora because I felt like my sisters were just telling me it looked good to be nice. I remember asking a worker, “Hi, can you be super honest with me?” I was like, “It’s like my first time really like wearing makeup. Do you think this looks good?” I remember her looking at me, and she was like, “Yeah, everything looks really good.”
Even wearing eyeshadow for the first time, it was so bad that I went back into my car and took it off. So many people were staring at me.
How did the rest of your family react to you in makeup?
At first it was weird to them. Not weird, but they didn’t understand it. I remember my mom, she’s always super supportive—both my parents are very supportive—but I think they wanted to understand what I was doing. When I started wearing makeup, my mom thought that I was thinking of going transgender. Not that she was against it or anything, but she was like, “Hey, I wanna talk to you. Are you wanting to transition?” I was like, “No, no, no. I’m happy with being a boy, but I just love wearing makeup.”
It definitely took them a while to understand it. Now it’s to the point where like my parents like it so much, like, my mom will ask me to do her makeup and my sisters will ask me to do their makeup. My dad will compliment my makeup, which to me means a lot, because I was super scared back then to even come out to my dad. I was like, “Damn, I’m the only boy in the family.” I don’t want it to feel like I’m letting him down or something like that.
With fashion, when did your style begin to change?
Senior year I started wearing crop tops and wearing brighter colors, but I definitely think even not too long ago, less than a year ago, I just really, really dove into it.
Thankfully I found a stylist who helps me dress up now. I do not know how to dress. If it wasn’t for my stylist, all I wear is just black.
How do you handle backlash?
Luckily, I’ve never had someone tell me something to my face. I feel like that is so different than seeing something online. But whenever it is online, I just ignore it or I delete it or block it. Thanks to Instagram, there’s this feature where you can block out certain words from being commented on your stuff. For my own comfort, and to not feel like I’m being attacked, I blocked so many words on that. It definitely has helped a lot. It’s taken away so much hate, so I don’t see it. I literally don’t see it. I don’t understand why so many people get so angry about it. I’m just playing with makeup, just having fun.
When did you decide to make YouTube your full-time job?
I used to work at Kmart. I worked there my senior year in high school. It was so hard. I was still trying to balance YouTube, my classes, work, and homework. I started seeing my income increasing on YouTube and was like, “Why am I still at Kmart?” It was pointless because I was making way less money at Kmart than what I was doing on YouTube.
Do people from your hometown treat you differently now?
Yeah, it’s a good feeling. When I do go out, I get recognized a lot. Being able to see the love and support in a person, instead of seeing comments, you actually get to see people’s facial expressions and how excited they get.
Has YouTube fame changed your personal relationships?
It’s so hard for me to let people into my life, because I don’t know people’s intentions. I definitely have had so many people come into my life with the wrong intentions. Like, they want to get something out of me, or even try to get a following from me. I have lost a lot of friends, and I have even lost some actual relationships because of it.
How much can you make from one video?
It really depends on the views. The more views a video gets, the more you can make from it. There are advertisements that get put into our videos, and that is a way you can make money from them. It’s not a job where I’m going to work this many hours, and I’m guaranteed to make this much money.
Sometimes you will get paid really poorly and sometimes really well, which sucks sometimes. I put a lot of effort into my videos. Some of them can be 30 minutes long. We get paid month to month.
Do you have a manager?
I have a manager. I found her about a year ago. Before having a manager, I was ripping my hair out every day because you don’t know where to go. You don’t know what to do for help.
How do you come up with content?
My video ideas will come to my head randomly. I could be eating and I will get a video idea, or taking a shower. Very few of them are planned. The way I like to film my videos is, I get an idea, and then I don’t think about it too much, because when I film it, I want it to be as natural as possible. I don’t want to have a script or follow this or that. I think the fun in me making videos and the whole comedy comes from me just doing it naturally. It can be stressful sometimes, because there will be a day when I don’t get any ideas and my upload is coming up. That’s when I get stressed out.
On average, how long does it take you to edit a video?
Average video, six hours maybe. Because I have to go through the full video, then I edit it once, then I watch the full video again and edit it twice. Then the last time I finalize everything, like add background music and add an intro and outro. It takes a big part of my day to sit there. I try not to do it all in one day, because then I won’t have time for anything else.
How long does it take you to film a video?
I try to film between two and three hours, which is so crazy to say out loud, because when you watch the video on YouTube, you really only see like 15 minutes or 20 minutes.
Do you ever feel nervous for your viewers’ reactions?
I do! What I really want to focus on with my channel is comedy. I want people to get a good laugh.
Is it difficult living far away from other influencers and trying to collaborate?
That is such a difficulty—like, huge! Obviously I live here in Watsonville, and being here for a while, I felt like I wasn’t growing because I wasn’t meeting people. I wasn’t making friends. I wasn’t meeting other YouTubers, and I wasn’t going to events.
Everything is in L.A., at least for what I do. All of my friends live over there. A lot of them move from different places, but for what we do, we have to be there. Recently I started traveling a lot more. I can tell you, I’m there all the time.
What are your plans for the future?
I am going to try to stay on YouTube and do it as long as I can and keep having fun with it. I hope this opens opportunities for me to do something on TV myself. I would like to stick with the film industry, movies or something like that.
How do you feel representing your town?
It makes me happy, because it’s very small. I get messages from people saying, “Damn Louie, it’s so crazy seeing you going out and doing these big things and going on TV and meeting people. Keep representing Watsonville.” Which is cool to me, because to my knowledge, I don’t think anyone from Watsonville has [done that]. For me being able to do these things I do, it’s cool to be like, “Oh, I’m from Watsonville.”
What was your experience growing up in Santa Cruz County?
I do love the area, especially being so close to the beach. It was always just a little drive away. There’s a lot to do around Watsonville—I don’t think there’s much to do in Watsonville, but you have everything super close. You know, you have like Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Salinas, Gilroy, and Monterey. You’re in the middle of everything, so it was fun growing up being able to travel to all these different areas, or even taking the bus to the Boardwalk. Walking around Watsonville, it’s super small, so it wasn’t like, “Oh my god, I’m going to get lost” or “What if someone does something?” I felt I knew my way around. It’s a good little place, and you know a lot of people.
Where does your comedy come from?
I feel like most of my comedy comes from my dad. He is shy and doesn’t like to come out on camera. Which sucks, because I know he would be super funny. My dad is literally just me, but older. He does all of the little funny dances that I do. He is super funny with the jokes. It’s not like those cringy dad jokes.
How important is your Mexican cultural identity to you?
Anywhere that I go to where there are more Mexicans or Latinos, I feel like I am at home. I feel comfortable. I just feel like they are super nice to me. I can relate to a lot of them. I love being Hispanic, like the food and everything about it.
Do you get responses to creating content in Spanglish?
I do get those comments, a lot of people saying things like, “Oh my god, you are so funny, but I don’t understand all of your videos.” Or I will say something and people will ask, “What does that mean?” And all of my Latinos will get it. It kind of does make me want to make pure English videos, but I feel like the only thing holding me back from not making those videos is it’s not 100% me. That’s the one thing—I just want to keep it me.
Before former Parks Director Mauro Garcia came to work for the city of Santa Cruz, he worked for the Southern California city of Vista, where he served as public works director.
Martha* worked with Garcia there. She doesn’t remember the time fondly.
“That man’s a monster,” she told GT.
After leaving Vista, Garcia spent seven years here in Santa Cruz before abruptly leaving his post as parks director a year and a half ago.
As GT learned via a public records request and reported earlier this year (“Poor Conductor,” 6/5/19), City Manager Martín Bernal asked Garcia to resign because of a violation of Santa Cruz’s employee conduct policy.
Years earlier, at the city of Vista, Martha says Garcia manipulated her into staying at a job she was trying to leave, and into beginning an affair with him.
After evaluating Martha over several sessions, a counselor hired by the city of Vista summarized his findings in a 2010 letter, saying that Garcia had taken advantage of Martha when she was in a vulnerable period of her life. Garcia targeted her and emotionally bonded Martha to himself, so that she could serve his needs, the counselor believed. Martha suffered “emotional abuse/intimidation and isolation at work,” he wrote, and a cycle was created that only made her more dependent on Garcia.
Martha ultimately left her management analyst job, under duress, she says. Nine years later, she says she hasn’t dated since—she fears men, she says—and adds that she’s been suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
After hearing about GT’s previous coverage of Garcia from a family friend, Martha called me to talk about her experience. She remembers feeling shaken when she learned that Garcia, who began his career in San Diego, had landed a new job in 2011—in spite of his track record. After she found out about Garcia’s career move, Martha says she and a friend warned a Santa Cruz official about Garcia’s past, but they never heard back.
“I’m glad that he was forced to resign,” Martha says now. “But of course, he gets his full pension.”
According to public records, Garcia received $110,000 last year—most of it from the retirement system for San Diego, where he worked for 20 years, and the rest from the city of Santa Cruz, via the state CalPERS program.
There is no evidence that Santa Cruz strayed from typical employer practices in hiring Garcia. Still, the story raises interesting questions about how much cities learn about potential employees before bringing them onboard.
After weeks of looking for a way to speak with Garcia, I stopped by his home to see if he would be willing to speak with me, or provide any contact information so that we could talk later.
“No,” Garcia told me at the door. “You shouldn’t come here.”
BAD MEMORIES
In 2008, Martha says she was going through a divorce from her alcoholic husband when she told Garcia she wanted to leave her job. She planned to take her two kids and move to Northern California to be closer to her mother, according to interviews with GT and documents from nine years ago, when she filed a complaint about Garcia’s conduct in Vista.
Martha says Garcia told her she couldn’t leave and repeatedly took her out to lunch, begging her to tell him what was wrong. She finally told him about her rocky marriage and looming divorce. Garcia was the second person she ever told, after her therapist. Martha says her boss thanked her for opening up and told her he could help her because he was “practically a psychologist,” given his master’s degree in organizational psychology. Garcia started talking about getting a divorce himself, although Martha insisted that she wasn’t comfortable hearing about it and that he should seek counseling, she says.
One day, Garcia took off Martha’s shoes in his office and kissed her, she says. Partly given the tumult in her life from the divorce, Martha says she felt confused, trapped and scared. She says that when she tried to leave either her job or the relationship, Garcia would shove papers off his desk and yell at her for betraying him and not caring about him. She says Garcia told her she couldn’t go to Human Resources about their relationship.
Martha began having panic attacks and vomiting due to lack of sleep, according to her written chronology from that time. “He knew that I was in a very vulnerable place,” she tells GT. “He would not let me out of the relationship. I used to cry.”
Martha finally did go to HR, and ultimately resigned under duress days later, she says, at the end of 2009. A nervous breakdown left her in bed for seven weeks, she says. Garcia left the city of Vista a few months later. The city adopted a fraternization policy later that year.
Vista’s city manager declined to answer any questions about Garcia or the circumstances surrounding his departure.
Martha also filed complaints with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against both Garcia and Vista. An investigator did not establish evidence of any illegal activity, but hetold Martha it would be very difficult for Garcia to find work in the next three years while the agency kept the complaint on file, which she took comfort in.
But that didn’t turn out to be the case.
POSSIBLE PATTERN
Santa Cruz officials say they had never heard Martha’s experience.
“I know it’s one side of the story—at HR, we always try to think, ‘What’s the other side of the story?’” says Santa Cruz Human Resources Director Lisa Murphy, who was not on staff when Garcia was first hired. “But even on that surface, it’s a pretty disturbing story.”
Bernal says he wasn’t aware of any behavioral issues, either when Garcia was first hired or when Bernal promoted him from parks superintendent to parks and recreation director in 2016.
Two years after that promotion, Bernal asked Garcia to resign from the city of Santa Cruz because of a complaint under the city’s Respectful Workplace Conduct policy, which outlines a number of behaviors deemed unacceptable.
Bernal says that no criminal activity was involved in the incident. The complaint apparently pertained to romantic advances that Garcia made toward a lower-level city employee.
“When this occurred, I thought it was just really bad judgment,” Bernal says. “I was really surprised by it. Even just to go out with someone to a restaurant and have drinks, I wouldn’t have done that. If I had heard that, that would’ve been not a good thing from my perspective. But this went beyond that.”
Bernal adds that the situation escalated from there, and the two went back to a private residence.
When told about the circumstances of the Santa Cruz complaint, Martha was happy to hear that things ended there.
“It sounds like he didn’t get far with that woman,” she says.
HIRE POWER
Santa Cruz doesn’t make public information requests for state DFEH complaints as part of its hiring process. Neither do other local governments, like Scotts Valley, Capitola and Watsonville, GT has learned. That’s partly because—without knowledge of a particular complaint, and the complainants’ permission—any request would have likely turned up little useful information, according to DFEH officials.
Garcia started work at the city of Santa Cruz in 2011, just over one year after he left the city of Vista. In 2012, Martha found out from family friend Larry Peterson, who lives in Santa Cruz, about Garcia’s new job. Peterson emailed an employee of the city manager’s office with information about Martha’s experience with Garcia, and a copy of her DFEH complaint.
At that point, Santa Cruz officials could have followed up to get Martha’s permission to access her file, which she says she would have consented to. Peterson never heard back.
HR Director Murphy joined the city two years later. She says that, generally speaking, when Santa Cruz hires a supervisor or department head from another city, her department is limited in the information it can learn from an applicant’s previous employer. For instance, she may not be able to learn the nature of an employee’s departure from a previous job.
And the same goes for a former Santa Cruz employee who’s looking for work somewhere else.
“Unless there’s a signed release from the candidate saying you can release and say whatever you want, we’re only limited to saying your years of employment and what your position was. Even today, that’s how we operate,” she says. “Now, we can’t tell your salary, but we used to be able to tell your salary.”
That means that an employee who left under the same circumstances that Garcia did could potentially find work again without worrying that the reasons for his departure would surface in another employer’s hiring process.
Bernal argues that in this instance, a recruiter would likely find out about Garcia’s forced resignation from Google searches and news coverage. GT uncovered the reason for the departure in June—more than a year after Garcia left.
Even without GT’s coverage, Bernal argues that a recruiter would have likely seen Garcia’s brief two-year run as a department head as a potential red flag. In that scenario, Bernal says, recruiters may call to ask privately if there were other reasons for the leadership change.
But if short tenure is a red flag, Santa Cruz leaders might have missed similar indicators when they hired Garcia in 2011. Garcia worked for the city of Vista for less than two and a half years. Prior to that, he worked for the city of Santee for a few months. Before that, he worked for many years as San Diego’s deputy parks director, a lucrative position in California’s second-largest city.
Nonetheless, Danettee Shoemaker—who served as Santa Cruz parks director prior to Garcia and oversaw his 2011 hiring—says there are a variety of reasons someone might leave a job, like looking for a change of pace or scenery.
She adds that if anyone has any information about ways for local governments to learn more about applicants from previous employers or from other sources, they should let the city of Santa Cruz know.
“People are pretty limited on what they can share,” she says. “The law protects the applicant more than employers.”
