Councilmember Steve Barbose had a question for fellow council members at Monday night’s meeting.
“This Thursday, Sonoma Clean Power meets,” he began. “The last meeting, an issue came forward. … It’s essentially an agenda item asking Sonoma Clean Power board members to take action to try to get – well, so that director Carrillo is no longer a director of Sonoma Clean Power.”
He was talking about Efren Carrillo, the Sonoma County supervisor who was arrested and charged with attempting to peek into a female neighbor’s home one drunken night a year ago. Carrillo was tried and acquitted by a jury in April – but his political career remains in question.
On Monday, Barbose – who sits on the eight-member Sonoma Clean Power board of directors alongside Carrillo, Supervisor Susan Gorin and city leaders from Cotati, Sebastopol, Windsor and Santa Rosa – was asking for guidance from the full Sonoma City Council prior to Thursday’s meeting. Should he vote to remove Carrillo from the energy agency’s board?
Saying he “did not want to make a vote on this without asking the four of you to give a direction,” Barbose noted that while Carrillo’s presence could be seen as “a detriment to Sonoma Clean Power,” he also was acquitted by a jury.
“I certainly don’t approve of what he did myself, but I want other viewpoints,” Barbose said.
Before his arrest, Carrillo was a major proponent of Sonoma Clean Power, and later was appointed to its board by David Rabbitt, chair of the Board of Supervisors. Rabbitt has made no move to remove him from the power agency’s board “despite widespread public outcry,” Barbose said. Thursday’s vote by the Sonoma Clean Power board of directors is on whether to request that Rabbitt remove Carrillo from its own ranks.
“Have all the other directors gone to their city councils to take a vote?” asked Councilmember Laurie Gallian during the Monday night council meeting. Barbose said he didn’t know.
Few members of the public spoke on the issue, but Pete Saibene, a retired PG&E employee, did step forward to say, “I think the man had his day in court.”
“Does he really cause that much of a problem for Sonoma Clean Power?” Saibene asked. “I’m not sure of that.”
Sonoma’s elected leaders disagreed, with Councilmember David Cook saying, “I strongly support” Carrillo’s removal.
Gallian expressed the same sentiment: “I strongly request his removal” from the Sonoma Clean Power board, she said, adding, “I don’t think that he should be in a leadership position” of any sort. She also called Carrillo’s presence a “total distraction.”
Councilmember Ken Brown and Mayor Tom Rouse concurred, with Rouse stating, “I think he’s betrayed the public trust. … He was acquitted, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
“This sends the right message to him, and it sends the right message to the constituents,” he said.
Carrillo was arrested almost exactly a year ago – on July 13, 2013 – after a woman living next door to his Santa Rosa residence was awakened early in the morning by the sound of someone tearing open the screen of her bedroom window. She called 911, and police responding to the scene found an inebriated Carrillo nearby, wearing only his socks and underwear.
After more serious charges were dropped, Carrillo was prosecuted for attempting to peek into the woman’s home, a misdemeanor. During the trial he testified that his behavior was caused by alcoholism and egomania. He said his girlfriend had dropped him off at home that night, and that he decided to swing by the neighbor’s house with a couple Pliny the Elder beers in the hopes of having sex with her.
After his acquittal a political firestorm ensued, with fellow supervisors and others calling on the once-rising star to resign. Carrillo has refused to do so.
Monday’s council meeting was over at 6:55 p.m. – less than an hour after it began. The results of Thursday’s Sonoma Clean Power meeting were not available as of press time.
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