SAN DIEGO –- Chula Vista Councilmember Andrea Cardenas and her brother Jesus appeared in court Wednesday on fraud charges.
Cardenas and her brother are facing multiple felonies ranging from fraud to money laundering related to pandemic-era relief loans obtained by their political consulting firm Grassroots Resources.
"These indictments are a dark cloud over the city right now," said Chula Vista Mayor John McCann.
The pair were in court Wednesday for a readiness hearing, scheduling future court dates. While there hasn’t been much movement on the case yet, there have been consistent calls from the public for Cardenas to resign from her position on the city council, including by McCann and fellow Councilmember Jose Preciado.
"When you read the indictments, they’re very substantial. There's 28,000 records that the district attorney has. It’s very substantial and I would encourage everybody to read them because this isn’t a gray area," McCann said.
After a couple absences following the charges, Cardenas has returned to attending meetings, mostly staying silent despite the recurring critical public comments.
Cardenas’ attorney has said she has no intention of stepping down, in fact she’s filed to run for re-election. McCann says he hasn’t had the chance to speak to her one on one, but this is what he would say:
"Just to put the city of Chula Vista first, and to be able to resign and make sure that the city can go back to functioning well."
Cardenas has only issued one public statement saying she plans to defend herself against these charges.
The next city council meeting is next Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Cardenas’ next appearance in court is Feb. 20.