Members James Casey and Cerina Otero will not be officially admonished by the Ceres City Council for using the city seal in a May 28 newspaper ad and flyer advertising a budget hearing.

A section of the Ceres Municipal Code forbids the use of the city logo for unauthorized purposes. 

The effort to issue a public admonishment was nixed last week when two members – Mayor Javier Lopez and Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez – supported the motion but failed to get a third vote needed for approval. Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra retreated with a “no” vote after initially supporting the matter being place on the agenda. Casey and Otero abstained from voting.

Casey and Otero used their own money to pay for an ad in the May 28 Courier as well as print up and send out flyers to inform Ceres residents about the June budget workshop. The printed materials included the city seal.

After the materials came to light, Casey and Otero were privately advised that the logo use was forbidden; yet City Attorney Nubia Goldstein said Lopez, Martinez and Vierra voted in closed session to bring forth an admonishment in a public setting. Casey and Otero were not included in the council closed session.

“I want to make clear to the council and to the public that this item is not an item for censure,” said Goldstein. “It’s not an item for a reprimand.”

She clarified that “an admonishment is not a formal finding of wrongdoing … and really serves as a warning.”

Ceres resident Brandy Meyer and president of the Ceres Chamber of Commerce, said the action was unnecessary.

“I just kind of feel that it’s sort of an embarrassment for our council members, for us to sit out here and listen to them rather than just speaking to them in private about the ordinance,” said Meyer. “I read it. I mean, it’s pretty clear. I’m just wondering why this is being brought up publicly.”

No audience members who spoke up favored taking the action against Casey and Otero.

Resident John Warren noted that Casey and Otero were not allowed to participate in the closed session discussion. He also stated that Casey tried to get the attorney to opine on use of the logo before he ran the ad but never heard back from Goldstein.

“So I think this should have been handled differently so we’re not here today in a very embarrassing situation,” said Warren.

Later in the meeting Goldstein clarified that while she did not respond to Casey’s message, Casey made it clear that the city logo would not be included. He also said he would send a proof for review but he didn’t.

Ceres resident Albert Avila saw no harm done to justify admonishment and questioned if there was an ulterior motive.

“What Mr. Casey was trying to do was to invite the citizens of the city to come and participate in the budget adoption,” said Avila. “The council adopted a budget with a $1.9 million deficit. There was no fund balances reported on there. The previous year, the city manager’s report referred to that the budget for the 2025 fiscal year was maintaining the General Fund reserve at 20 percent. Now … we took the fund balance below the council adopted policy of 20 percent. So what are we really talking here? Is somebody embarrassed that Mr. Casey sent out a flyer trying to get the community to be involved, and now is trying to chastise him for that in spending of his own personal money?”

Gene Yeakley said he didn’t believe Casey and Otero were intentional in violating the code but told the council: “Don’t hold this against those two people. This is totally wrong.”

Casey explained that he emailed the city attorney but didn’t receive a reply before printing deadlines.

“Obviously, I understood that I wasn’t supposed to use them (logo), but nobody got back to me,” Casey said.

City Manager Doug Dunford later told Casey that the proper channel is to run things of that nature through him, not directly to the attorney.

“You can vote anyway you want,” Casey told the council. “It doesn’t matter. I recognize I knew that it was wrong.”

Otero said Dunford told her that Lopez and Martinez had raised concerns and came to him directly. She apologized for the use of the city logo, adding it was her “only intent was to inform and invite our residents to participate in the public budget workshop, which is an important opportunity for transparency and community involvement.”

“What’s more disappointing is the ongoing lack of transparency and communication that has existed in our city government,” Otero said. “Based on my brief time sitting on the council, it is clear there’s not much partnership or teamwork, which is why I decided to join efforts with Councilmember Casey.”

She commented that as a manager of a 74-employee division of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department “when a mistake occurs on an effective team, the leaders and team members will address it directly with one another and work together to correct it so we can all move forward. And unfortunately, in this instant, that did not occur.”

Vierra said she wished the entire council could have been included in the flyer and opined that “it felt like that we were kind of excluded and not part of the team.”

Vierra also said that she understood the matter had already been dealt with privately yet “they (Lopez and Martinez) went ahead and moved forward.”

Martinez was less yielding, saying: “I am in favor of admonishment. It is just a warning. Whether it was intentional or not, there was a rule that was broken. I know we expect accountability. We’re requesting transparency. We’re asking so much of all of our directors and city staff, so we have to be accountable as well.”

Martinez clarified that he didn’t first approach Dunford but that Dunford called him to raise the matter.

“You contacted me and let me know there was going to be a closed session meeting about this,” Martinez stated looking directly at Dunford.

That comment sparked a tense moment when an upset Otero said “I’m really interested in hearing what our city manager has to say because apparently, so if the vice mayor didn’t call you that day? So you told me that it was the mayor and the vice mayor so I was lied to. That’s not okay.”

Dunford replied: “I didn’t tell you that you that.”

“You did tell me that,” Otero replied.

Otero had the last word when she suggested that email etiquette calls for acknowledgement of messages received, not ignoring them.

She reiterated that she was told Lopez and Martinez brought forth the idea of an admonishment.

“I was told the same thing,” said Casey.

Mayor Lopez said he supported admonishment but “didn’t know that this was going to be on this city council meeting. I was told that it was possibly going to be in a future date.”

Martinez made the motion for admonishment, backed by the mayor and it failed.