Behind the scenes, RSM’s movers & shakers: Gamble, Cervantez, Simonian, the Bealls, Cave.
Rancho Santa Margarita has become an ethical cesspool — a city driven by hypocrisy, corruption, racial exclusion, and systemic abuse of power.
Let’s start with City Manager Jennifer Cervantez, who has made a name for herself by turning on her own Hispanic community. She actively opposed transitioning the city to district-based voting under the California Voting Rights Act, and has treated the young Hispanic professional who performed the city’s demographic redistricting analysis as a second-class citizen. Rather than engaging with the process in good faith, Cervantez undermined it — dismissing the work and disrespecting the individual simply because of who he is and what he represents. That same disdain is reflected in her treatment of the Boys & Girls Club, whose very presence she helped push out of RSM. The message to Hispanic families is clear: You’re not welcome here. She and her political ally, Greg Simonian, didn’t just close the door — they slammed it.
This conduct is not isolated. It’s part of a larger pattern of morally bankrupt leadership in RSM — reminiscent of the corrupt, egotistical antics of Carol Gamble, John Cavanaugh, and Duane Cave. Let’s not forget the Rackauckas-era drug bust at the Bealls’. But in Rancho Santa Margarita, misconduct is always swept under the rug — if you’re part of the club.
Speaking of the Bealls: corruption in this family seems to be in the genes.
Start with FPPC Case No. 19/1418. Councilmember Anthony Beall violated Government Code Section 87207 by failing to report his spouse’s income on his 2018 Statement of Economic Interests. Represented by insider attorney Chad D. Morgan, Beall walked away with little more than a wrist slap. His wife, Jennifer Beall, was also caught in FPPC Case No. 19/1419 for failing to report income from campaign consulting while serving as a District Coordinator for disgraced Assemblymember Bill Brough. Again, no meaningful accountability. Just more insider protection for the privileged few.
Now, Beall is at the center of another scandal: allegedly submitting nomination forms signed by “current residents” who do not live in RSM — including his own children. His daughter, Amanda K. Beall, an attorney, is listed on official legal biographies as residing in Newport Beach, not Rancho Santa Margarita. Her law firm proudly notes:
“Amanda K. Beall grew up in Rancho Santa Margarita and currently resides in Newport Beach.”
If that’s true, her signature on a nomination form as a “current resident” is fraudulent. And if it’s false, then the law firm itself is misleading the public. Either way, someone is lying — Tony Beall or Amanda Beall — and the people of this city deserve to know which.
This is the state of Rancho Santa Margarita: a city where political insiders protect each other, ethics are optional, and the Hispanic community is treated as expendable. The city’s leadership operates in an echo chamber of privilege — a place where rules don’t apply to the powerful, and the truth is whatever they decide it is.
Rancho Santa Margarita doesn’t just need reform. It needs a political reckoning — and a complete purge of those who treat the public like fools and minorities like outsiders.
Cervantez is one of those self-loathing Latinos who grew up not white enough for the whites and not brown enough for the Mexicans. I’ve met her a few times, she’s underwhelming to say the least.