Candidate Madison’s proof leads to more questions
Some supporters are standing behind Laguna Beach City Council candidate Jon Madison after allegations surfaced last month that he lied about academic degrees he earned and an apparent discrepancy in his voter registration.
Madison attempted to clear his name with an emailed statement released Monday night in which he says he has transcripts and a diploma from Cornell University, along with his birth certificate and correct voter registration information on hand for viewing at his restaurant, Madison Square & Garden Cafe.
“My background is exactly as I have specified, but in light of recent events, I realize the burden of proof has shifted to me,” Madison, chairman of the city’s Heritage Committee, said in the statement.
The Coastline Pilot was unable to verify the documents. Madison did not return two emails or a phone call placed to his business by press time.
A scan of the purported diploma is available on Stu News Laguna but there are some apparent discrepancies in the document, which is dated 1979.
The signatures of the president of the college and the dean of the agriculture college do not match the names of the men who held the jobs at the time Madison would have graduated.
The Orange County Register first reported that Madison, known for his philanthropic pursuits and his welcoming vibe for visitors, including pets, to his restaurant, may have lied about earning degrees from Cornell, in Ithaca, N.Y., and the UCLA School of Law.
On his campaign website, Madison says he earned multiple degrees in plant physiology and horticulture, as well as in landscape architecture and urban planning.
Madison “put that education to good use working for a major landscape architectural firm and later running his own landscape business,” the website says.
In fact, according to a June article in Laguna Beach Art magazine, Madison said he taught at Cornell and took part in the revamping of New York City’s Central Park in the 1970s but left for California after playing an extra in some big films.
“It was this inauspicious introduction to the West Coast that led the eighth-generation Manhattanite to leave his professorship at Cornell University, where he had taught plant physiology and botany and worked as a lead architect on the restoration of Central Park in 1974. (He still remembers which trees they left and which they took out),” the article states.
Cornell has no record of a person named “Jon Madison” or “Jon Jay Madison” having received a degree from the school, university spokesman Joe Schwartz told the Coastline Pilot last month.
UCLA School of Law’s registrar’s office also has no record of “Jon Madison” attending classes there, media relations representative Letisia Marquez said Wednesday.
In his statement, Madison said he earned a degree from the UCLA School of Law and expected documentation to arrive “shortly.”
“I did not sit for the California State Bar exam, although I worked as a manager of a busy law firm,” Madison said.
Adding to the controversy is Madison’s 2012 application for the Heritage Committee that lists his occupation as “restaurant owner/lawyer.”
Madison said his parents named him Jon Jay Joseph Vincent Madison and that he is 57, which conflicts with California voter registration records.
Information for the 2013 general election lists Madison’s birth date as Jan. 29, 1953, which would make him 61.
Even more confusing, one voter registration entry for 2007 lists a Jon Madison with a birth date of Jan. 29, 1953, and the address 320 N. Coast Hwy. — that of Madison Square & Garden. — while another entry has a Jon J. Madison with the birth date Jan. 29, 1954, and the address 435 Jasmine St., Laguna Beach.
Madison attributed the voter registration confusion to a “clerical error.”
He went on to say: “I hope intelligent and open-minded voters will understand that a cross-country move in my young adult life, a deplorable and thorough identity theft by someone I once trusted, a clerical error on my voter registration record and university records departments that lost track of me all combined to make it appear, with an assist from an opponent, that I deliberately misled the very people I am asking to entrust me with a public office.
“The assault in the press has only made me more determined to prove myself to Laguna Beach voters. I will bring fresh energy, efficiency, and acumen to the City Council. As always, I have only the community’s best interests in mind and if elected, I promise to listen carefully and serve well.”
Mayor Elizabeth Pearson and Councilman Kelly Boyd, who is seeking re-election, are sticking by Madison.
Pearson said it’s not unheard of to encounter trouble in obtaining college transcripts and/or diplomas, especially before records became computerized.
“I am not intending to pull my endorsement at all,” Pearson said Monday, before Madison released his statement. “He claims he has the documents, and I believe him.”
Boyd is also unwavering in his support, crediting Madison with contributions to the community that include hosting fundraisers at his restaurant.
“What he’s done has been exceptional for the nonprofits,” Boyd said. “How he has acted in the community has been exceptional.”