Stockton Mayor's Camp At Center Of Anthony Silva Scandal

AMADOR COUNTY (CBS13) — Ten Stockton city employees were called from their regular duties to go manage a summer camp in Amador County. The camp organizer, Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was arrested Thursday morning and charged with inappropriate contact with a minor.

The week long Mayor's Camp is several hours away from Stockton, tucked into the El Dorado National Forest. It's described by the Mayor in Facebook posts as a chance to give city kids an experience in nature.

"It's actually federal lands in the city has a permit to use the land for camp purposes," said John Alita. He's the Community Services Director with Stockton City.

Silver lake Family Camp owns the property. Alita says the city doesn't have anything to do with the Mayor's Camp set up by Anthony Silva.

"I really don't know anything about the camp," said Alita, "I can tell you it's not affiliated with the city of Stockton."

Silva was arrested Thursday morning, accused of inappropriate contact with a minor at the camp in 2015.

This years event, hastily organized by Silva.

"We had a partial roster," said Alita, "so we had to find out some contact information for some of the kids."

Roughly 88 kids ages 6 to 18 are at the camp with about 8 staff members who were brought by the mayor.

"You know all these kids are young so we're not going to get into a lot of detail," said Alita.

In a post from 2015 on Mayor Silva's Facebook page he calls this week long getaway a chance to "help keep kids off the streets and safe!"

The 2015 post suggests the mayor handles the sign up sheets and collects the $125 camp costs.

Alita stressed that the city has no oversight of the Mayor's Camp. And couldn't answer questions about how money collected was used.

"We are just going to continue camp and bring everybody home tomorrow as planned," said Alita.

At least one parent came to pick up their child Thursday afternoon.
We also reached out to the Stockton Kids Club, which appears to be or may have been a sponsor of the camp. They did not return our calls.