Did a Stanislaus city vice mayor abuse his power over ... little league?
Ceres Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez is accused of using his position to undermine Ceres Youth Baseball because of a personal dispute with the league’s president. Martinez denies doing so.
CYB president Jorge Guerrero Jr. said Martinez used the power of his office to meddle in the league’s contract negotiations, reallocate federal funding away from field improvements and direct Ceres City Manager Doug Dunford to pressure Guerrero into allowing Martinez special access to facilities.
On April 14, the City Council voted against approving a three-year agreement with CYB for the use of the Costa Fields Baseball Complex. Council members voted 3-2, with Martinez being a tie-breaking vote. At Martinez’s request, the item was placed under separate consideration, according to the council’s agenda. Separate consideration is when an agenda item is singled out for further deliberation.
About 40 players, parents and coaches attended the council’s meeting Monday, April 31, with a few speaking during the public-comment period. They questioned the city’s motives and demanded to know where American Rescue Plan Act funds, allocated for field upgrades, ended up being spent. Martinez was not in attendance on Monday.
“I shouldn’t have to be here speaking on behalf of CYB … trying to defend ourselves against what I feel is one tyrant on the council board who’s supposed to be vice mayor,” said Ismael Ontiveros Jr., vice president of CYB. “He should be looking out for us instead of against us. So we feel very, very disrespected by the councilman.”
ARPA funds were allocated for Costa Fields and amounted to $200,000, with a little over $88,000 actually spent, according to Dunford and documents. The remaining funds were reallocated to upgrade the interior of the city’s Finance Department building on Magnolia Street, according to Dunford.
CYB alleged that all of the funds could have been spent but weren’t. A frequent complaint is that outdated field lights have caused injuries due to players losing fly balls in the glare. Dunford said the city wanted to have all of the lights replaced, not just a few like CYB requested, but there weren’t enough ARPA funds to do this.
Dunford said the city is still committed to fixing the lights, but without the use of federal funds, because the deadline for allocation has already passed. CYB officials feel like several of Martinez’s actions are a personal vendetta against the organization.
Personal beef
CYB representatives said this all started about two years ago because Martinez was denied a coaching position and because of subsequent disagreements with Guerrero both on and off the field. Martinez has a son that currently plays in CYB and one that used to. Martinez also served on CYB’s board as its Sponsorship Coordinator.
Martinez acknowledged that he’s had personal disagreements with Guerrero and that some of it was because he was denied a coaching position. But he said it hasn’t contributed to any decision he’s made in regards to the city’s contract or with ARPA funds.
“We had a conversation when my son stopped playing with him that, you know, despite my differences, we were supposed to try and work together civilly. … I have no intentions of [my kids] playing anywhere else other than Ceres,” said Martinez.
Guerrero said that over time, things became more tense between the two when Martinez started poaching Guerrero’s teams of players for other leagues and violating CYB’s bylaws. At one point, Guerrero said he had to block Martinez from the organization’s Facebook page because of unnecessary commenting.
Martinez confirmed he was blocked on the Facebook page and he took some players from Guerrero’s team but said he wasn’t sure if he broke any of the organization’s bylaws.
“I don’t know. If I violated any bylaws … I don’t have an answer for that,” said Martinez.
Personal beef and organizational drama aside, Guerrero said he really became concerned when he refused to let Martinez rent the field’s facilities, including the batting cages, for personal use by his kids.
Guerrero said that this also could violate the bylaws, but that Martinez responded by telling Guerrero that the city manager, Dunford, was going to get involved if he didn’t get his way.
Both Martinez and Dunford acknowledged they communicated with Guerrero about the batting cages, but Martinez said it had nothing to do with wanting to use it for personal use. Martinez said he wanted it open to the public.
“What I asked for is that they be open to the public. … Why can’t a community member who’s got a team there rent them for an hour, have their kids come out, do some hitting?” Martinez said.
Dunford said he was asked to investigate who actually owns the batting cages. After some research, he determined that CYB had built and owned the cages but it was all facilitated through a handshake agreement about 20 years ago.
“It was done by a handshake and not by any contract resolution or council proceedings. So as a handshake… it doesn’t go far when those people, two people that did the handshake, are gone,” said Dunford.
Dunford said he acknowledged CYB’s desire to have exclusive use of the cages because it gives them a competitive advantage over other leagues in the area. Dunford said the city was trying to memorialize the handshake agreement in the new contract.
But CYB officials say this is where Martinez could sabotage the contract by using his official capacity as a voting City Council member on the contract’s details — all because of his disdain for Guerrero.
“I told him, ‘This is something between you and me. Don’t get the city involved,’” Guerrero said.
The city and CYB are still in talks over the details of the contract. Several details, including the length of the contract, are still being ironed out, according to Dunford and Guerrero. However, Dunford, Martinez and Guerrero all say they’re still committed to working something out.
“I think, you know, the CYB in the city, want to be good partners. We’ve been doing this for years and we had a little confusion, and we got it straightened out,” said Dunford. “We can move forward now.”
Another vote on the item to approve the contract will happen at a future, yet undetermined city council meeting. The item will be open for deliberation amongst the city council members.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 1:09 PM.
