Campaign to recall Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli takes shape as town braces for charged meeting

A newly formed recall campaign to remove Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli began taking its first steps Monday as the disgraced politician showed no sign of bowing to the widening calls for his ouster under a cloud of sexual assault accusations from at least six women.

The Recall Foppoli campaign, which described itself as made up of “concerned residents of Windsor, including mothers, fathers, coaches, business leaders and students,” was preparing official documents and planned to file them with election officials in the coming days, said Mark Malouf, an interim manager for the campaign.

The moves come after a weekend of protests denouncing Foppoli and the alleged behavior described by the women, which even former allies of the mayor described as “predatory.” Recall officials signaled they intended to mount an aggressive effort to drive him from his elected post.

“Dominic Foppoli has made clear that he will not leave office, and will instead attempt to distract from the allegations against him with a strategy of blatant lies and misdirection,” Tim Zahner, chair of the Recall Foppoli campaign, said in the statement.

Also on Monday, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced that she had recused her office from the criminal investigation into Foppoli and left any prosecution in the hands of the state Attorney General’s Office. Ravitch cited but did not spell out the potential conflict of interest driving the move: one of her deputy prosecutors, Windsor Councilwoman Esther Lemus, became over the weekend the sixth woman to accuse Foppoli of sexual assault.

That was the latest stunning turn in the scandal that has engulfed the 38-year-old politician and scion of a local winemaking family since last Thursday, when the San Francisco Chronicle reported the initial allegations brought forward by four women. Foppoli broke his silence late Saturday in a written statement that denied the allegations facing him.

Just hours earlier, a fifth woman who had dated Foppoli from 2001 to 2004 told the Chronicle of the sexual abuse she had endured from him in 2002.

“If I have done anything wrong, I would accept responsibility and I would resign,” Foppoli said in the statement. “But I have not.”

Hours later on Saturday, in a late-night interview with The Press Democrat, Lemus, the Windsor councilwoman, said she had been the victim of sexual assaults involving Foppoli in February and August 2020. In both instances, she suspects Foppoli of having slipped drugs into her drinks to facilitate sex without her consent. She said the first incident happened following a community crab feed after Foppoli and another man drove her home. She said the second took place at Foppoli’s winery and involved one of his friends.

“I’m speaking up because I know there are more victims out there,” Lemus said, “and it takes courage to come forward, and we’re done with this. We’re done with this.”

Foppoli’s attorney did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment on Monday afternoon.

In his statement, he accused Lemus of sexual misconduct against him. And he responded forcefully to her allegations early Sunday, calling them “outrageous fabulist tales.”

People calling for Foppoli’s ouster staged multiple demonstrations over the weekend, including one in front of Foppoli’s home and another in front of his family’s Christopher Creek Winery, where he had been stripped of his titles as CEO and co-owner. On Sunday outside the winery, his brother, Joe, said he was “disappointed and disgusted” by the allegations.

“Elected officials should be held to higher standards of moral character and no matter what comes out, he has not done that and he needs to step down,” he said

Zahner, in Sunday’s Recall Foppoli campaign statement, said Dominic Foppoli’s misconduct was “part of a larger pattern of narcissistic and dangerous behavior ... that not only harms his reputation, but also creates unnecessary strain on our community.”

Zahner also is executive director of the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau.

The calls for his resignation now include of his fellow council members, as well as the entire Board of Supervisors, the mayors of all eight other cities in the county, at least three of the region’s state lawmakers and its two congressmen.

The Windsor Town Council is slated for what is likely to be a charged and highly watched emergency meeting on Wednesday night to discuss its options. For now, the council will consider demanding Foppoli’s resignation and whether it might support the recall campaign.

Lemus intends to attend the meeting, according to her attorney Traci Carrillo.

If Foppoli seeks to attend the meeting, the Town Council will not be able to stop him from doing so, longtime Councilwoman Deb Fudge told The Press Democrat Monday night. Fudge did not know of Foppoli’s plans.

“This is not an easy fix by any stretch of the imagination by anybody,” Fudge said.

“I support Esther (Lemus) and can’t imagine what shes going through right now and what her friends and family are going through,” Fudge said. “I will do what it takes to heal the town and it’s imperative that Windsor work together to heal what we’ve been through.”

The Board of Supervisors also will discuss Foppoli on Tuesday. The board is likely to rescind his recent appointment to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, according to a Facebook post from board Chair Lynda Hopkins and comments Supervisor James Gore made on radio show KSRO on Monday afternoon.

Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Proto said Friday that proponents of the recall would need 20% of registered voters’ signatures in 120 days to advance to a recall on the ballot.

Windsor has 16,879 registered voters, as of the registrar’s last report.

To begin the recall process, the campaign has to serve notice on Foppoli. State rules governing recalls allow them to do so in person or through certified mail. The latter option could prove important, given that Foppoli is staying with friends and not at his home, according to remarks his brother made to reporters over the weekend.

The recall campaign’s website, recallfoppoli.com, says it was paid for by a committee called Residents for Recalling Foppoli. Malouf, the campaign manager, said the campaign is “actively recruiting donors and fundraisers at this point.”

“More of this stuff will become clear down the road,” Malouf said, adding that further information about the campaign would become public this week, and that he was a campaign volunteer.

The investigation by law enforcement into Foppoli has fresh and recent allegations in the incidents detailed by Lemus, who shared her report with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the lead local agency. The other cases span from 2003 to 2019, putting some beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution.

Ravitch, Sonoma County district attorney, said Monday afternoon that any charges would be prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office. Lemus was not named in in her announcement, but Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell said that upon learning Sunday of sexual assault allegations against Foppoli made by a member of her own staff, Ravitch immediately called state prosecutors and asked them to intervene.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office on Monday declined to provide an update on its investigation other than to say that detectives had been assigned to the case and would forward their findings to the AG’s office.

Staff Writers Nashelly Chavez and Martin Espinoza contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88