Barrios campaign photo

Barrios worked for Gomez while paid by laborers union.

After a blitz of allegations about loose ethics and possible crimes, Kelvin Barrios was forced in November of 2020 to abandon his campaign to fill the Ninth District city council seat of Georgette Gomez, his onetime boss. Now, more than a year later, he has agreed to settle one of the matters by paying a $5000 penalty.

"In December 2018, while still employed with the City in the District 9 Council office," begins a stipulation with Barrios released by the San Diego City Ethics Commission December 16, Barrios "contacted the Laborers' International Union of North America, Local 89 regarding the possibility of employment" by the union, known as LiUNA.

"After a short negotiation period," the document continues, Barrios became the organization's Policy and Community Engagement Director. Pay records confirmed Barrios "was a compensated employee of LiUNA as of January 7, 2019."

But Barrios didn't quit his Gomez gig until a week later, all the while collecting his city salary.

"'During the period between January 7, 2019, and January 14, 2019 (the overlap period), Respondent was employed by both the City and LiUNA and received compensation from both.

"[Barrios] reported that he was expected to work at least 40 hours a week for LiUNA, including during daytime working hours."

Barrios, who began his stint with Gomez in December 2016, got approximately $855 "for days that he was simultaneously employed by LiUNA during the overlap period," per the stipulation.

Notes the Ethics Commission document: "it is unlawful for any City Official to receive compensation for performing any work, service, activity, or enterprise for private gain or advantage if it involves: . . . (a) the consumption of time for which the City Official is receiving compensation by the City; or . . . (f) a consumption of time that would render the performance of his or her duties as a City Official less efficient."

As first reported here in November 2019, Barrios had previously been fined $4000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission regarding his role as campaign treasurer for a 2016 Chula Vista school board candidate.

According to the FPPC, Barrios "wrote himself four checks that totaled approximately $2,083. He produced no invoices or receipts to justify these expenditures. As a consultant, his work concluded with the election, and he had failed to fulfill his treasurer duties by not maintaining records or filing campaign statements."

"He also spent a total of approximately $3,140 on debit or cash withdrawals at local food establishments, USPS for stamps, and the Men's Warehouse for menswear. Barrios admitted to FPPC investigators that these purchases were for his personal benefit."

An August 25, 2020, Union-Tribune dispatch reported that the San Diego District Attorney's office was investigating alleged misuse of funds by Barrios when he was volunteer treasurer between 2015 and 2017 for the San Diego County Young Democrats.

During subsequent weeks, influential Democrats, including state Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Gomez, along with the San Diego Democratic Party and the Laborers Union itself, pulled their endorsements of Barrios, leading him to put his campaign on "pause.” Fellow Democrat Sean Elo-Rivera was elected to the seat.