BY GARTH STAPLEY

CV Journalism Collaborative

Hughson Mayor George Carr admitted to “poor judgment” while also disputing some findings of an investigation into alleged lewd behavior toward employees of a transit agency he chaired before resigning that assignment under a cloud of suspicion.

As reported by The Modesto Focus on Sept. 4, the investigation – commissioned by StanRTA, or Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority – sustained accusations that Carr kissed and touched an employee at a transportation conference in Anaheim in 2024 and told sex-based jokes in 2025. He currently is running for reelection.

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“Kissing – no, I don’t believe that ever happened. I don’t remember. I don’t think I ever did that,” Carr said in a telephone call a day after The Modesto Focus could not reach him at City Hall or through messages to his city and personal emails.

“Touching – one time with StanRTA staff members I noticed some very artistic drawings on fingernails,” Carr said. “I asked if I could look at them, I complimented them, and that was the end of it.”

A law firm conducting the investigation determined that Carr in 2024 violated the agency’s harassment policy prohibiting unwanted kissing and touching. So did jokes referencing masturbation and sexual orientation Carr told on separate occasions in 2025, the investigation found – which Carr confirmed to The Modesto Focus.

“Lewd jokes – I was talking to someone in private and an employee overheard it,” the mayor said.

The agency’s harassment policy prohibits unwanted contact and “derogatory comments, slurs (and) jokes” and other behavior that may “interfere with an individual’s work performance and/or may create an intimidating, hostile or otherwise offensive work environment.”

Lewd behavior forces resignation from StanRTA chairmanship

Confronted with accusations during the probe, the mayor in December 2025 resigned from the StanRTA board he chaired, which is composed mostly of elected officials. The agency runs a bus system throughout Stanislaus County.

The investigation may have overlapped another commissioned by Carr’s own city administration after Councilmember Susana Vasquez reported unwanted and inappropriate contact, which the mayor also denied, blaming a political vendetta.

Those accusations were sustained as well in February, leading to an embarrassing council censure in May and Carr’s removal from three other boards and committees.

City of Hughson

The two investigations have no connection, Carr said.

“They’re completely separate,” he said. “My actions with StanRTA were poor judgment. I admitted to my actions, I went ahead and resigned and I’ve not had interactions with them since.”

Carr in 2010 was elected to the council in Hughson, 10 miles southeast of Modesto. He was appointed mayor in 2021, ran unopposed in 2022 and is challenged on the upcoming Nov. 3 ballot by Geoff Powers and by former councilmember Sam Rush.

Carr acknowledged an uphill climb to overcome negative perceptions in his current campaign. He said, “A lot of people know me. They know what kind of person I am and that my best interest is for the city. I’m going to try and do my best.”