By love-89.com During a recent city council meeting in San Gabriel, several members of the Chinese community voiced their concerns regarding misleading information propagated by candidate Jorge Herrera. With the November 15 election approaching, community members are actively engaging in local electoral activities.
On the day of the meeting, four Chinese individuals took the opportunity to speak out against Herrera, who, in his Chinese candidate profile, misrepresented his title as “市政經理” (city manager). This profile was sent out to voters alongside the ballots, suggesting that those selecting the Chinese ballots would receive this misleading information in their native language.
One speaker, Hsiao-Hui He, president of the Asian American Advancement Association (AAAA), provided evidence showing that the “occupation” section in Herrera’s Chinese profile incorrectly stated “市政經理” as “city manager.” Currently, the position of city manager in San Gabriel is held by Mark Lazzaretto, not Herrera. He also presented additional evidence from a promotional poster for a major event where Herrera was inaccurately described as the “current city council member for San Gabriel.”
In response to these claims, Herrera denied any wrongdoing. He explained that the information he submitted to the election office was in English and that his title was “municipal manager.” He suggested that a misunderstanding arose because “municipal” and “city” can both mean “城市” (city) in Chinese, leading to the election office’s translation error. At the time, he was serving as the municipal manager for Republic Services, overseeing waste management for San Gabriel and three other cities.
Regarding the error on the event poster, Herrera stated that he could not read the Chinese text but took immediate action to correct it once he realized the title was incorrect. He reached out to the event organizers to request a correction, and they subsequently issued an apology to the city government, ensuring that the five currently serving council members were informed of the situation.
“This incident occurred months ago, and I thought it had been resolved,” Herrera said, expressing surprise that such allegations resurfaced during the council meeting on the 15th. He provided emails indicating that he had communicated about the issue with both the event manager and the city council members in June and August.
Additionally, a white woman named Cheryl Cabot spoke up during the meeting, alleging that Herrera had falsely claimed to be the mayor during interactions with Chinese voters, suggesting he had police endorsement as well, to sway non-English speaking voters. Herrera firmly denied these accusations.
This year, San Gabriel’s city council has two open seats, currently held by John R. Harrington and Tony Ding, whose terms are expiring. There are currently five registered candidates, including incumbent Tony Ding, Herrera, Jeanne E. Raya, Carina Rivera, and Isela Lopez Bowles.