December 1, 2025
Documents recently provided by the City to the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) include Councilmember’s Zwick employment offer from the developer funded group HAC, dated August 15.
Yet on August 12, just three days before Zwick was offered the HAC job, his new boss, Corey Smith (Executive Director of HAC) testified at City Council in favor of an emergency ordinance that provided huge concessions to developers to build over 3000 units of market rate housing without requiring affordable housing units to be built as part of those projects for up to five years - or at all. (Developers could simply pay a fee instead.)
It seems highly likely that, at the time of the Council meeting, Zwick and HAC were already in discussions about his employment offer – sent just three days later – to become the first Director of HAC’s new Southern California office.
Yet at the August 12 Council meeting, Zwick pushed hard for the HAC's agenda without disclosing his relationship with HAC or recusing himself from the discussion as he was obligated to do.
Here is SMCLC's letter to Mayor Negrete and City Council asking that Council instruct our City Attorney to investigate these facts: https://smclc.net/PDF/SMCLCsQsforJZ120125.pdf
