You can listen to the Lopez confession on The Morning Mayor Show today at 10

Councilman Lopez Confession Ignored by Bee and Modesto Police Officers Union
 
Recently, the Republican Party charged that, “Dave Lopez, failed to properly oversee $6,500.000.00 in federal housing funds.”
 
There is more, Lopez in his own words, says that he knew about the “SCAP” Scandal in early May. The word about SCAP was out in early April.  That means the City of Modesto was issuing checks to SCAP for two months before the SCAP finances were frozen. The Lopez failure to warn the council early cost the taxpayers $250,000. Lopez has excuses for not coming forward…he could have made his disclosure at a council meeting, in closed session, or go to the Bee a month earlier.
 
On October 15, 2011 the Bee reported that,
 
“Lopez was the first city leader to pay serious mind to the problems with the Stanislaus Community Assistance Project and its use of federal funds. After learning of the concerns from a former SCAP board member, Lopez went to the city manager and then brought the issue to The Bee. Lopez recognized a bonafide whistleblower and helped get the needed investigations launched.”
 
The Bee report is simply untrue. and the Modesto Police Officers union failed to investigate their candidate.
 
The Bee was also late in reporting other scandals in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program but finally they reported the following,
 
On August 4, 2011 the Bee reported that,
 
“A whole new line of problems has surfaced in the way the city of Modesto has allocated and monitored millions of federal dollars intended to rehabilitate foreclosed properties.
 
The new problems zero in on Trinity Ventures, a private firm that has purchased homes and a Tully Road apartment complex with money from the second phase of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Ryan Swehla and Scott Monday are partners in Trinity, and Swehla is also a partner in Benchmark Commercial Real Estate Services, which received a $62,500 sales commission in connection with the sale of the Tully Road complex. Councilman Joe Muratore is Swehla's partner in the real estate firm.
 
Federal auditors, who have been reviewing the city's books since May, spotted the "potentially significant conflict of interest" between Trinity and Benchmark last week.
 
You should know that the Joe Muratore “No Conflict” headline in the Bee was meant to deceive.  The Bee did not report that the city paid $2,200 to a San Francisco defense law firm to issue an opinion to defend Muratore.