An Escondido councilmember was told a 2022 campaign photo broke the law. He’s using it again

Four years after a special counsel told Escondido City Council member Joe Garcia to remove images of himself in a police uniform from his reelection campaign website and stop distributing them in campaign material “to avoid continuing to violate” state law, Garcia has used the same photo for the same purpose ahead of the Nov. 3 election — and he is under investigation again.

The law at issue is California state Government Code section 3206, which states, “No officer or employee of a local agency shall participate in political activities of any kind while in uniform.”

Garcia, a church pastor and former volunteer chaplain with the Escondido Police Department, previously used photos of himself in the police chaplain uniform during his 2020 campaign and his 2022 reelection campaign. No one complained about it in 2020. His opponent did in 2022.

Four years ago, Garcia told a lawyer retained by the city to resolve the complaint that he bought the photo from the police department in 2018 and used it to campaign in 2020, thinking it was OK. He neither requested nor received permission from police to be in uniform in campaign materials. Chaplains provide emotional support during crises and are not sworn officers.

In 2022, Garcia told the Devany, Pate, Morris & Cameron LLP he had no intent to deceive anyone or to violate any laws, rules, or policies; that he was not aware of any prohibition against campaigning in uniform, and that he would comply with the results of the lawyers’ review.

Now, Christina Cameron has been retained as special counsel to investigate Garcia for the second time in four years after residents asked the city about his use of the same photo for reelection. The city did not have the cost for the lawyer’s work in 2022 or her 2026 terms Tuesday. 

Garcia told inewsource that he is proud of 20 years of service as an Escondido police chaplain but is currently inactive. He said that he thought blurring the badge this time around would make the photo comply with the special counsel’s order. 

“At the time, I asked whether blurring the badge and patch would bring the photograph into compliance, and my understanding was that it would,” Garcia said. “I blurred those portions of the image in a good-faith effort to meet the applicable requirements. I understand that the photograph has since been referred to Special Counsel for a determination.”

Garcia is using the image on his website without blurring it.

Underneath the photo, it says: “Joe Garcia is volunteer Police Chaplain with the Escondido Police Department. Use of his title, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Escondido Police Department.”

What happened in 2022?

In 2022, Garcia’s then-opponent for Escondido’s District 2, Jeff Griffith, submitted a complaint to the city over Garcia’s use of the photo in mailers and on his website, and the city hired the special counsel to investigate the matter. 

In a 24-page investigative report dated Oct. 24, 2022, Cameron ruled that Garcia had to “immediately remove pictures of himself wearing his police uniform from his campaign website and may not distribute unused campaign materials or create new campaign materials … that include pictures of him wearing his police uniform.”

Cameron wrote that as a sitting councilmember in 2022, Garcia could not appear in his own campaign literature in uniform. 

Neither Garcia nor the city answered questions from inewsource about Garcia’s actions after the report. Shortly after its release, Garcia told the Escondido Times-Advocate that he had removed the photo from the website and changed the “walking literature.” 

Escondido City Clerk Zack Beck told inewsource that Anthony DiMartino, who is running against Garcia in District 2 in the Nov. 3 election, contacted the city on Saturday to say Garcia was using the photo again for campaign purposes, and three other residents subsequently informed the city.

Beck said Cameron is investigating the use of the photo in “as expeditious a manner as possible” ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.