OC Supervisor Files Complaint Against Former SJC Mayor: Report

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA — Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett has filed an official complaint with the California Secretary of State against former San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott, against whom she is running to represent California’s 49th Congressional District.

Bartlett’s complaint alleges that Maryott’s proposed ballot designation of “Certified Financial Planner” is “false, misleading, and unlawful” because Maryott retired from work as a financial planner over four years ago. The complaint argues that California law requires a ballot designation to list as a principal profession work that involves a “substantial involvement of time and effort such that the activity is one of the primary, main or leading professional, vocational or occupational endeavors of the candidate” and candidates cannot rely on activities that do not entail “significant involvement on the part of the candidate.”

The complaint also lists various pieces of evidence that Maryott no longer actively works as a financial planner, including an expired broker registration, and public disclosures listing no income in recent years from work as a financial planner.

“According to public records, Brian Maryott has no job, no income, no business, and no license, he is not a certified financial planner, he is a fraud,” Barlett told The Coast News in a statement. Bartlett’s statement also alleged that Maryott cost the City of San Juan Capistrano $500,000 in ethics violations.

In a statement to The Coast News, Maryott asserted that although he no longer actively practices financial planning, he met the “very rigorous education, examination, general experience, and ethical requirements to be designated a Certified Financial Planner.” Maryott also called Bartlett’s statement “bizarre, inflammatory, and shameful.”

On his campaign website, Maryott still lists himself as a Certified Financial Planner. He was elected to the San Juan Capistrano City Council in 2016, and served until 2020, when he ran as one of 16 candidates to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, and finished eighth in the primary with 3 percent of the vote, according to The OC Register.

He and Bartlett, the former mayor of Dana Point and an Orange County Supervisor representing District 5, are both running to unseat Democrat Mike Levin, who has represented the 49th District since 2021.

— See the full Coast News report here.